Sunset Beach, NC answers “should I go to the beach right now, and what for”,
“when should I go and what will I see”, and “will I see that rocket launch from
the strand” — for exactly one beach, Sunset Beach, North Carolina. It gathers
what the public agencies already publish about this stretch of coast (the
National Weather Service surf zone forecast, NOAA buoys and tide station, NC
DEQ water quality, the town’s own calendar and ordinances, iNaturalist, eBird,
BirdCast, Launch Library and more — 28 upstreams in all) and puts it on one
screen, with every number labelled with where it came from and how old it is.
It comes as a native iPhone app (Sunset Beach, NC, iOS 17 or later), a
single web page at sunsetbeach.neuralconfig.com,
and a read-only JSON API under /api/ on the same host that both of them read.
Because almost everything in it is specific to this one — the surf zone
forecast sub-zone (Ocean Isle Beach West), the tide station at the Sunset
Beach pier, the three water-quality sampling points, the town’s parking
ordinance, the pier’s daily fishing report. Those don’t transfer to the next
beach up the coast, and the app does not pretend they do.
The iPhone app has five tabs — Today, Water, Events, Nature and
Info (titled Beach info on screen) — plus a search sheet that reaches
every section, an Alerts screen for tide, moon and launch reminders and
opt-in pushed alerts, home-screen widgets, a rocket-launch Live Activity, ten
Siri shortcuts and a share button. Every reading carries a Live, Cached or
Unavailable status, and the Sources screen lists every upstream with its
URL. The web page is a one-column summary of the same data with none of the
app-only features.
Get the app and find your way aroundThe iPhone app versus the web page, the five tabs, the loading screens, and what ⓘ buttons and 'last known good' labels are telling you.
The Today tabThe verdict and score, what today is good for, live readings, water quality, air and UV, parking, the hours ahead, sunrise and sunset, and the best days this week.
The Water tabTide height now, surge against the prediction, the tide chart, highs and lows, the surf zone forecast for this beach's sub-zone, the offshore forecast and inland gauges.
The Events tabThe town calendar, the Sunset Sound Waves and pier concert series, rocket launches and the Next visible launch card.
The Nature tabTimes and seasons, right whales, recent sightings, birds, the migration radar, sea turtles, marine life and the nature map.
When to goHow the almanac builds windows for shelling, Bird Island, dolphins, ghost crabs, turtle hatches and more, seven days ahead — and This week and The year.
FishingYesterday's catch from the pier report, what's peaking and starting next month, and the size and bag limits in force before you keep one.
Beach infoGetting there, the rules on the beach, paid parking and rates, the tropics, shellfish closures, beach cams and what that ship offshore probably is.
SearchHow to open search, what it can find, how results are ranked and what tapping one does.
Alerts and notificationsTide, full-moon and launch reminders scheduled on your phone, the opt-in pushed 'When conditions change' alerts, their defaults, and how permission works.
Widgets and the launch Live ActivityWhat each widget size shows, how often it refreshes, what 'No data' means, and when the rocket-launch Live Activity appears.
Siri, Spotlight and ShortcutsThe ten Siri shortcuts and their phrases, the three Shortcuts actions, the places you can pick, and every sunsetbeach:// deep link.
Sharing conditionsWhat the share button on Today, Water and Events puts in a message.
Where every number comes fromAll 28 upstreams — the station or feed, what it feeds in the app, how often it refreshes, and its known limits.
How fresh the data isCache lifetimes per source, the 5-minute warmer, what 'Cached' and 'last known good' mean, and how /api/health reports ok versus degraded.
How the app judges thingsThe activity scores, the layered-cloud sunset model, rip and swim verdicts, the launch visibility model and how almanac windows are scored.
Public JSON APIEvery /api route on sunsetbeach.neuralconfig.com, the data/meta envelope with its last-known-good fields, error shapes and caching headers.
Limits and what it doesn't knowOne beach only, no lifeguards, no wave sensor at the beach, upstream rate limits, scraped sources, and what is deliberately not parsed.
Privacy — what leaves your phoneNo account, no analytics, no location — and exactly what the push token registration sends when you opt in.
Troubleshooting'Can't reach the beach', 'Showing the last data loaded', Cached and Unavailable badges, alerts that never fire, and empty widgets — what each means and what to do.