United States / Illinois
12th Street Beach
12th Street Beach is a 328 m-long sandy beach, 1.7 km north-east of Near South Side (Illinois, United States). The sea averages 22.5 °C in August, its warmest month, and 2.0 °C in February; it is 21 °C or warmer in August.
Average sea surface temperature by month. Current month outlined.
Month by month
October at 12th Street Beach
Beach-day index 2.3/10 · United States median 4.5
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea °C | 3.3 °C | 2.0 °C | 2.0 °C | 3.8 °C | 7.1 °C | 14.1 °C | 20.9 °C | 22.5 °C | 20.1 °C | 14.5 °C | 9.2 °C | 5.6 °C |
| High °C | -0° | 0° | 5° | 10° | 15° | 21° | 25° | 25° | 22° | 15° | 9° | 3° |
| Low °C | -5° | -5° | -1° | 4° | 9° | 15° | 20° | 20° | 16° | 10° | 4° | -2° |
| Rain mm | 48 | 54 | 62 | 94 | 117 | 102 | 95 | 105 | 86 | 99 | 61 | 58 |
| Cloud % | 71 | 70 | 66 | 63 | 64 | 56 | 48 | 48 | 46 | 58 | 63 | 73 |
| Wind m/s | 7.0 | 6.5 | 5.9 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 4.3 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 6.2 | 6.7 | 6.8 |
| Daylight h | 9.5 | 10.6 | 11.9 | 13.3 | 14.5 | 15.2 | 15.0 | 13.9 | 12.6 | 11.2 | 9.9 | 9.2 |
| Record high/low | 12°/-25° | 14°/-19° | 21°/-17° | 23°/-4° | 29°/1° | 31°/4° | 35°/12° | 32°/13° | 31°/8° | 26°/0° | 20°/-8° | 16°/-19° |
| Beach index | 2.4 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 4.4 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 6.4 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 2.3 |
Long-term monthly averages: air from NASA POWER (2001–2020), sea from NOAA OISST (1991–2020); records are the extremes of 2001–2020. How the index works.
When to go
The beach-day index peaks in July–August; August scores 8.5/10 with highs of 25 °C, sea at 22.5 °C and 105 mm of rain.
In August that is 0.4 points above the median of the 2,466 beaches in United States covered by this atlas.
Across the year the sea averages 10.4 °C, cooler than 89% of the coastal beaches in the atlas.
May is the wettest month (117 mm) and January the driest (48 mm); the yearly total is about 980 mm.
Daylight runs from 9.2 hours in December to 15.2 hours in June; in mid-August the sun rises at 05:57 and sets at 19:52 local time.
Setting
Within 1 km, the land is 55% built-up land, 36% grassland and 7% tree cover (satellite land-cover map, 2021): an urban beach. Water makes up 68% of that circle.
- Built 55%
- Grass 36%
- Tree 7%
Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m).
Average wind speed at 10 m reaches 7.0 m/s in January, the windiest month.
OpenStreetMap shows no lifeguard station within 1 km. Seasonal lifeguard posts are often unmapped, so check on site.
Photos
From above
Facilities within 1 km
- 13Restaurants, cafés & bars
- 9Public toilets
- –Showers
- 8Drinking water
- 24Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 1Hotels & guesthouses
- 5Water-sports spots
- 1Marinas & slipways
- 27Bus stops (1.5 km)
- 4Bike rental
- 2Viewpoints
- 2Historic sites
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 7 restaurants, 5 cafés and 1 fast-food outlet. Accommodation: 1 hotel or guesthouse.
Counted within 1 km of the beach (bus stops 1.5 km) from OpenStreetMap features and Overture Maps places, release of 2026-10. Unmapped does not mean absent.
Around the beach
Attractions & museums
- The Arena Club at Soldier Field attraction 340 m NW
- Museum Campus, Shedds, Adler, & Fields.. museum 340 m NW
- Abbott Oceanarium attraction 630 m NW
- Wild Reef attraction 660 m NW
- Jazzin' at the Shedd attraction 690 m NW
- Shedd Aquarium attraction 700 m NW
Historic sites
- Gold Star Families Memorial monument 570 m W
- The Balbo Monument monument 570 m SW
Nature
- Soldier Field Sledding Hill peak 810 m SW
Lighthouses & piers
- Dock EE pier 230 m W
- Judd Goldman Adaptive Sailing Dock pier 240 m W
- Dock EF pier 250 m W
- Dock ED pier 250 m W
- Dock EG pier 280 m SW
- Dock EC pier 280 m NW
Marinas
- Burnham Harbor 560 m SW
Diving & boat hire
- Yachts Of Fun 250 m NW
- Spinnaker Crew Sailing 550 m SW
- Chicago By Boat 550 m SW
- The Salty Dog Sailing Co. 550 m SW
- Divvy Station 830 m W
Getting there
| Airport | Code | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago Midway International Airport Chicago | MDW | 14.8 km | south-west |
| Chicago O'Hare International Airport Chicago | ORD | 27.7 km | north-west |
| Gary/Chicago International Airport Gary | GYY | 31.8 km | south-east |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 27 bus stops within 1.5 km, rail station 18th Street (1.1 km), rail station Museum Campus/11th Street (1.3 km), ferry terminal Museum Campus (860 m) and 24 mapped car parks within 1 km.
22 towns and villages of 1,000+ people lie within 10 km (about 3.4M residents); within 30 km there are 132 (about 6.1M).
Map and nearby beaches
Loading map…
Open in OpenStreetMap · Directions in Google Maps
- 31st Street Beach2.7 km SCompare
Data on this page
- Air temperature, rain, cloud, wind, humidity: NASA POWER climatology 2001–2020, 0.5° grid.
- Sea temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1 monthly normals 1991–2020, nearest ocean cell 1.9 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature w178931793; restaurants, cafés, bars and lodging: Overture Maps places (CDLA-Permissive-2.0).
- Water body, status and length: Wikidata (CC0).
- Towns and time zone: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Airports: OurAirports (public domain). Sunrise and sunset: NOAA solar equations.
- Photos: Wikimedia Commons, author and licence under each image.
- Satellite view: Copernicus Sentinel-2 (ESA), scene S2C_16TDM_20250926_0_L2A.
- Settlements: GeoNames places with 1,000+ inhabitants.
- Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021, 10 m (CC BY 4.0).
- Search popularity: about 14.8K Google searches a month for the name (KeywordTool, October 2026).
Data compiled 2026-10-13. Something wrong? Report a data error.