New Jersey Waters See Massive Spike In Ocean Temperature

New Jersey Waters See Massive Spike In Ocean Temperature

It may be the end of summer (say it isn’t go) but you would never know this by the temperature of the ocean.

In a given year our waters can range in temperature from an average high of 74.3°F in August and a low of 39.2°F in February.

If you have been coming down these past few weeks, you may have noticed that the ocean temperature was a lot colder than usual. For the half of July and the first week of August, those temperatures were closer to 56.7°F. Some would call this a spring dip.

This phenomenon happens when we have major upwelling.

Upwelling is a process that involves strong winds pushing the hotter surface water out to sea. Imagine a strong wind blowing from West To East. This wind pushes the shallow surface water many miles out into the Atlantic.

As water still needs to fill those shallower areas, it pulls in water from the deeper parts of the ocean. This cycle of cold water and warm water rotating causes that mix of 56.7°F.

Upwelling is very common in our areas but it doesn’t usually last this long. As wind and storms start getting more intense we could see upwelling last longer in the future.

The good news is that this upwelling cycle has slowed which has allowed warmer waters to return back to our coastline.

After the cold waters came in people couldn’t wait until it got back to its normal 74.3°F BUT there is a bit of a surprise.

At this moment our coastline is receiving some light southeast trade winds. This pushes up warmer water from the south. When that warmer water mixes in with our 74.3°F we could see a jump in ocean temperature closer to 80.1°F.

National Weather Service (NOAA) has a temperature gauge in Atlantic City that saw 83.8°F reading.

This is the highest temperature on record behind the 2016 reading of 83.3°F.

To compare ocean temperatures, for a few days we had the same ocean temperature as Northern Florida did.

One this to keep in mind, is that with warmer temperatures we also see different kinds of marine life. This is when we will see more jellyfish hit our coastline.

The temperatures have gone back down to their normal average but a hurricane could pull more of those ocean temperatures back our way.

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