Local Expert: High Ocean Water Temps Common This Time Of Year
By David Madden
ATLANTIC CITY, Nj. (CBS) — Are you wondering why those ocean water temperatures are riding so high? It’s not so much the sun as it is the wind affecting conditions at the Jersey shore.
According to Josh Kohut, an assistant professor of Oceanography at Rutgers University, this is far from unique.
“In the summertime off New Jersey,” Kohut says. “We have a very common process of upwelling and downwelling and basically, depending on where the winds are coming from, it could push the warm surface waters toward the beach or away from the beach.
For the most part, the ocean water temperatures this summer have remained steadily in the upper 70’s, but get a few days when the winds come out of the south or southwest and you’ll see the cooler water temperatures come back.
And while it might prompt some aquatic life to venture north a tad early, things will straighten out in the fall, as soon as the first nor’easter hits.