If you wanna escape the blistering heat by heading to the Jersey Shore and taking a dip in the Atlantic Ocean, be prepared. The ocean water is cold — shockingly cold.
That’s the word from lifeguards and beach-goers in many beach towns who have been surprised to step into water that’s been reported to be as frigid as 54 degrees in recent days. And stiff winds from the south are blowing the cold water surface air over people enjoying the beach.
“You wouldn’t believe it, on the beach you have people with sweatshirts on,” said Joe Bongiovanni, beach safety supervisor in Asbury Park. “Two blocks in, and it’s steaming hot.”
Bongiovanni said the ocean temperatures in Asbury Park have been consistently cold during most of the long heat wave that has smothered interior sections of New Jersey during the past week.
“It’s been hovering between the high 50s and the low 60s,” he told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday. Normally, by late June, water temperatures are in the upper 60s, before climbing into the 70s in July and August.
At a lifeguard training academy in Sea Girt on Wednesday morning, the trainees in their teens and early 20s were definitely feeling the chill of the ocean, Bongiovanni said.
“We have kids coming out of the water shivering,” he said.
Like other beach officials, he attributes the cold ocean temperatures to a process known as upwelling.
Brisk winds blowing from the southwest have been pushing warm water on the ocean surface farther away from shore and causing cold water from the ocean floor to rise up to the surface.
The end result is the water temperature turning from refreshing to frigid — and colder air from the sea surface blowing onto the beach.
One good thing about all this: The upwelling process has resulted in very clean, greenish water at many beaches along the Jersey Shore.
Water temperatures along the Jersey Shore have been very cold through most of the heat wave in June 2024. Pictured is a Spring Lake lifeguard running into the surf during a daily workout on June 18 at the North End Pavilion in Spring Lake, N.J.Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Lifeguards in Sea Girt reported ocean temperatures of 55 degrees on Sunday and 54 degrees on Monday, with one describing it as “uncomfortably cold.”
Just a few blocks away, people are sweating in the high heat and high humidity. It’s even hotter farther inland.
Throughout the heat wave, which started June 17, air temperatures across the state have been hovering between 90 degrees and the mid-90s, with several places hitting 100 degrees on June 21, June 22 and June 23. That was the actual air temperature, without the humidity being factored in.)
Even on the hottest days, however, the cool ocean breeze kept the air temperature as low as the upper 70s in places like Long Beach Island and in the low 80s in other beach towns along the Jersey Shore.
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Stories by Len Melisurgo
Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly described part of the upwelling process.
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Len Melisurgo may be reached at [email protected] or on X at @LensReality.