On an unseasonably warm day at Rockaway Beach, families and other beachgoers wore swimsuits, sunglasses, and hopefully sunscreen Saturday afternoon.

"I didn’t think it was going to happen until I saw the weather!” Anthony Ramirez said.

“Everybody’s trying to finally get some sun,” Antonio Stone said. “It’s been cold an unpredictable for a very long time!”

What You Need To Know

  • Warm weather drew sizable crowds to Rockaway Beach Saturday afternoon

  • No lifeguards are on duty at any city beach until Memorial Day weekend

  • Efforts to safeguard shoreline against future storms will lead to partial beach closures until July 15

For many, this was their first beach day of the season. The next few weeks however are expected to feature several annoying factors that could make it a lot less comfortable to enjoy the beach in the Rockaways.

With the Army Corp of Engineers currently trying to safeguard the shore at Rockaway Beach against future storms, ongoing jetty construction means Beach 92nd Street to Beach 95 Street and Beach 109 Street to Beach 111th Street will be off-limits to the public until July 15.

“I’m gonna be sad and very uncomfortable,” Margarita Enriquez said.

Enriquez and her friend, Rodelsi Liz of Jamaica, plan to come to Rockaway Beach as often as possible during the summer with their young kids. But they say with COVID-19 still a concern, they would prefer for their beachgoing experience to include at least six feet of personal space. They fear much of this popular beach will be unnecessarily crowded, due to the partial closures.

“Everyone’s going to be all among each other and on top of each other,” Enriquez said. “And that’s not right."

“It’s summertime," Liz said. “We want our children to enjoy themselves, space out, play in the sand, go in the water. I feel if we’re all together we can’t really enjoy ourselves, you have to worry about the people around us. It’s best for us to be separated.”

Antonio Stone has an 8-month-old daughter who is not eligible to be vaccinated for COVID. He says while Rockaway Beach is his preferred beach, he says he’ll make the extra effort to find a spot that isn’t so crowded due to COVID concerns.

“It’s gonna have to force me to move all the way down there or all the way up there to actually find some type of space,” Stone said.

Meantime, high school student Anthony Ramirez of Gravesend says he'll also look for less crowded spot, in order to protect his younger siblings, some of whom are not yet eligible for the vaccine. 

“I have four siblings,” Ramirez said. “I don’t want to get them sick. You don’t know who has COVID and who doesn’t.”

The unseasonably warm weather is expected to continue Sunday. There will be no lifeguards on duty at any city beaches until Memorial Day weekend.