Cruel Combination of Air and Water Temps in Ocean City

It's one of the great paradoxes of summer in Ocean City: When blistering hot weather blows in on a land breeze, the temperature of the ocean plummets.

On Friday morning on the beach in Ocean City -- with the temperature heading toward the mid-90s -- the only rationale thing seemed to be to head to the water. But with the ocean at an icy 62 degrees, the only logical thing seemed to be a retreat back to the beach. The great dilemma: fry or freeze?

Fortunately, there is band of sand between the ocean and the top of the beach that's being cooled by that cold water -- and that's going to the best place to be on this sweltering weekend. There almost seemed to be an invisible wall halfway up the beach that separated the sauna from the cooler air. See .

The cold-water phenomenon is called upwelling. West winds coming off the land blow the warm surface water out to sea and colder water fills in from the deep. And it doesn't take long for things to change.

The ocean water temperature was 72 degrees at noon on Thursday, July 21, according to the NOAA weather station at Steel Pier in Atlantic City. By noon on Friday, July 22, the water temperature had fallen to 61.7 degrees.

The forecast calls for southwest winds to continue through the weekend, and that means ocean temperatures will likely continue their plunge. Of course, trying to predict the weather at the shore is a dicey proposition.

So let's put it this way: If the winds hold their course, you'll have a nice stretch of cool beach next to that icy water. And if they turn more from the sea, you'll have some warmer water and cooler air.

Either way, Ocean City won't be a bad place to be this weekend. 

Doug Bergen is editor of Ocean City Patch.