The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the surf was calm on Long Beach Island Monday. All that was missing were people swimming in the water.
Chilly water temperatures have swimmers relegated to the sand up and down the Jersey Shore over the past several days. Though ocean water temperatures were a bit higher in Monmouth County, the southern half of the state was especially hit by the chill-down.
On Monday morning at 11 a.m., the ocean water temperature was just 55 degrees at Atlantic City's Steel Pier. At Manasquan Inlet the temperature was a bit higher at 64.
Upwelling - the process of the wind blowing warm surface water out to sea and having it replaced by chillier water from the ocean's depths - was to blame, said Mike Gorse, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly.
"We've been dealing with a persistent south-southwest flow of air, and that causes an upwelling of cold water," he told Patch on Monday afternoon. "It's kind of like an overturning of the water. The surface winds are blowing the warmer water from the surface."
The warmer temperatures in Monmouth County could be due to local anomalies, he said.
"It's probably related to the depth of the water in those specific beach areas," Gorse explained. "There also could be some local differences in the wind direction that might be subtle enough to to affect the upwelling."
The bad news is that relief is not in the immediate forecast.
"For most of this week, we're still going to be underneath that south-southwest wind that should be maintaining what we have now," said Gorse.
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