Siesta Key Beach
Quartz sand and the Gulf at Siesta Key, the Sarasota barrier island, live webcam over the beach.
About this view
Siesta Key lies off Sarasota, a barrier island between Roberts Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, and this live cam looks across its main beach, whose sand is almost pure quartz and stays cool in full sun.
The sand is the reason the beach is famous. It is close to 99 per cent quartz, ground fine and white, and it reflects heat instead of holding it. The beach fills through the morning, volleyball nets go up, and in the last hour of the day people gather at the waterline for the sunset over the Gulf, which is the island's daily event. On Sunday evenings a drum circle forms on the sand and plays the sun down.
Siesta Key keeps Eastern Time, UTC−5, UTC−4 in summer. Some 5,500 people live on the island, and Siesta Key Village keeps its own bars and shops a short walk from the sand. The dry, mild season runs from November to April; summer afternoons bring the Florida storms, which usually clear as fast as they arrive.
