United States / Illinois
31st Street Beach
31st Street Beach is a 312 m-long sandy beach, 1.1 km north-east of Douglas (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.
![500px provided description: Harbor At Sunset [#lake ,#sunset ,#summer ,#pier ,#harbor ,#Chicago]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Harbor_At_Sunset_%28204953985%29.jpeg/960px-Harbor_At_Sunset_%28204953985%29.jpeg)
Month by month
October at 31st 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, 24% grassland and 16% tree cover (satellite land-cover map, 2021): an urban beach. Water makes up 51% of that circle.
- Built 55%
- Grass 24%
- Tree 16%
- Bare 4%
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.
From above
Facilities within 1 km
- 4Restaurants, cafés & bars
- 3Public toilets
- –Showers
- 2Drinking water
- 50Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 1Hotels & guesthouses
- 1Campsites
- 1Grocery shops
- 3Water-sports spots
- 1Marinas & slipways
- 1Playgrounds & water parks
- 67Bus stops (1.5 km)
- 4Bike rental
- 2Historic sites
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 2 restaurants, 1 café and 1 bar. 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
Historic sites
- Eugene Williams Memorial Marker monument 410 m NW
- Douglas Tomb State Historic Site monument 880 m S
Lighthouses & piers
- Dock A pier 140 m SE
- Dock B pier 200 m SE
- Dock C pier 240 m SE
- Dock D pier 280 m SE
- Public Dock pier 310 m E
- Dock E pier 320 m SE
Marinas
- 31st Street Harbor 130 m S
Diving & boat hire
- Vertex Yachts 100 m S
- MPower Charters 120 m S
- Meridian Private Yachts 580 m S
Campsites
- McCormick Place Parking Lot B Overflow 730 m NW
Getting there
| Airport | Code | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago Midway International Airport Chicago | MDW | 13.5 km | south-west |
| Chicago O'Hare International Airport Chicago | ORD | 29.1 km | north-west |
| Gary/Chicago International Airport Gary | GYY | 29.5 km | south-east |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 67 bus stops within 1.5 km, rail station 27th Street (760 m), rail station McCormick Place (1.6 km) and 50 mapped car parks within 1 km.
26 towns and villages of 1,000+ people lie within 10 km (about 3.6M residents); within 30 km there are 132 (about 6.1M).
Map and nearby beaches
Loading map…
Open in OpenStreetMap · Directions in Google Maps
- 12th Street Beach2.7 km NCompare
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 4.2 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature w185415594; 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 22.2K Google searches a month for the name (KeywordTool, October 2026).
Data compiled 2026-10-13. Something wrong? Report a data error.