Which Massachusetts Beaches Are Closed Saturday August 22?

Massachusetts listed 35 public beaches as closed to swimming as of Friday evening, August 21, 2026, according to a Boston.com report drawn from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health beach water quality dashboard.

The weekend snapshot covers bacterial exceedances, harmful cyanobacteria blooms, and a smaller set of other water quality postings.

If you planned a Saturday swim anywhere from the North Shore to inland ponds or Martha’s Vineyard, treat the named list as the current traveler decision. Confirm your exact beach on the live state dashboard before anyone enters the water, and treat a posted No Swimming advisory as a water-contact ban even when sand, parking, and boardwalks still look open.

What the Friday evening list covers for Saturday

Boston.com’s August 21 update said the Massachusetts Department of Public Health dashboard showed 35 beaches closed across 16 municipalities as of Friday evening.

That is the reporting window travelers should use for Saturday planning until a later dashboard refresh changes a named posting.

The same package broke the causes into 23 beaches posted for elevated bacteria, eight for harmful cyanobacteria blooms, and four for other unspecified water quality reasons.

Those categories matter because a bloom posting and a bacterial posting both mean stay out of the water, but they do not clear on the same clock or look the same at the shoreline.

Named North Shore clusters dominate the saltwater side of the list. Multiple Nahant Beach segments, several Revere Beach sections, Kings Beach stretches in Lynn, Lynn Shore Beach, Swampscott’s Kings, and Salem postings at Children’s Island and Juniper Point all appear in the Friday roster.

Inland and Cape-adjacent water also shows up. Brewster’s Cliff Pond swimming areas at DYS and Main remain posted for harmful cyanobacteria.

Chicopee Beach, Westfield’s Hampton Ponds beaches, Winchester’s Shannon Beach at Upper Mystic, and Worcester sites including Indian Lake and Lake Quinsigamond Regatta Point are on the same statewide snapshot.

Tisbury’s Tashmoo Beach and Tashmoo Cut keep Martha’s Vineyard travelers in the same decision loop.

A Vineyard itinerary is not automatically clear because the headline mentions North Shore bacteria. Search the exact water body, not only the island or town name.

How to verify the beach you actually plan to enter

Use the official Massachusetts Interactive Beach Water Quality Dashboard as the primary check, not a screenshot from last night. Postings can lift after a clean retest or linger for days when samples stay above state standards.

Search the exact segment name. Revere Beach alone appears as separate Beach Street, Carey Circle, Oak Island Street, and State Police Barracks postings.

Nahant Beach is split into four DCR segments. Lynn’s Kings Beach is listed at Eastern Avenue, Kimball Road, and Pierce Road plus Lynn Shore Beach.

A town-level rumor that “Revere is closed” or “Lynn is fine” is not enough for a swim call. One open segment does not clear a neighboring posted stretch that shares the same shoreline crowd and parking loop.

If your target beach is not on the monitored list, treat that as a separate risk signal.

Unmonitored water can still carry runoff after rain, near storm drains, or where birds and pets concentrate along the waterline.

Deep Arrival’s things to do in Boston guide helps when a North Shore or metro beach posting forces a dry backup day of neighborhoods, museums, and food stops instead of a swim.

Why rain and cool weekend weather still matter

Boston.com also noted a National Weather Service outlook for a wetter, cooler weekend across southern New England.

That forecast does not reopen a posted beach, and rain can push more pollution into swimming areas through stormwater runoff.

Massachusetts DPH guidance, summarized in the same report, ties beach contamination to stormwater runoff, leaking sewer pipes, combined sewer overflows, failing septic systems, and animal waste.

A gray Saturday can therefore keep Saturday and Sunday samples elevated even when fewer people feel like swimming.

Harmful cyanobacteria, sometimes called blue-green algae, can look like green paint, scum, or discolored mats. Pets are especially vulnerable if they drink or swim in bloom-affected water, so a posted bloom beach is a hard no for dogs as well as people.

Health officials advise staying out of the water whenever a beach is posted.

Reported illness risks from contaminated recreational water include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, sore throat, cough, and skin rash after people swallow or contact the water.

The practical rule for a cool, showery weekend is conservative. If you need guaranteed water time, choose a monitored beach that is open that morning, or move to a pool, indoor activity, or dry coastal walk instead of gambling on a posted shoreline.

Named beaches on the current weekend roster

Boston.com published the Friday evening town-by-town roster as the weekend planning list.

Amesbury’s Glen Devin Condominiums, Ashby’s Damon Pond Beach, Ashland Reservoir Main Beach, Bellingham’s Silver Lake, and Dartmouth’s Moses Smith Creek appear alongside the larger North Shore clusters.

Brewster keeps both Cliff Pond swimming areas posted. Dudley Merino Pond, Holden Eagle Lake, Upton Town Beach, and Westfield’s Kingsley and Lamberts beaches at Hampton Ponds extend the inland footprint beyond one shoreline news peg.

Worcester’s Indian Lake Public Beach at Sherburne Avenue, Lake Quinsigamond Regatta Point Beach, and Shore Park show that Central Massachusetts ponds remain part of the same statewide monitoring system.

Winchester’s Shannon Beach at Upper Mystic ties the metro west into the same check.

Salem’s Children’s Island Back and Wally segments plus Juniper Point keep harbor and island swimming in the mix. Swampscott’s Kings posting sits next to the Lynn and Nahant cluster that many day-trippers treat as one continuous North Shore outing.

That geographic spread is the planning point. Saturday’s decision is not a statewide beach shutdown.

It is that these 35 named water bodies are posted, and everything else still needs a live dashboard check before water contact.

What to do if your beach is already on the list

Cancel the swim, not necessarily the whole outing, if dry-sand recreation still fits the day. Volleyball, walking, photography, and picnic plans can continue at many posted beaches when only swimming is restricted.

Do not move a few hundred yards to an unmarked stretch of the same water body and assume it is safe.

Contamination does not stop at a town line painted on a parking lot map.

Keep children and pets out of shallow water near shore. That is often where contamination concentrates, and small children are more likely to swallow water during play.

Recheck the dashboard after lunch if you stayed on site for other activities.

Some postings lift after a clean retest. Others hold with no fixed reopen time until samples fall back below state standards.

For Cape-oriented trips that still need a coastal day after a posting, Deep Arrival’s Cape Cod things to do page helps reframe the itinerary around town walks, ferry logistics, and non-swim shoreline plans when water quality is the open question.

If someone already swam and feels ill afterward, seek medical care and tell clinicians about recreational water exposure. A news list cannot diagnose illness, but it can explain why a posted beach was the wrong place to enter the water.

Use the live state list, not a stale town rumor, before anyone in your group enters Massachusetts beach water this weekend.