Finally! Ocean warms to Shore vacationers

MARGATE, N.J. - To those who took their Jersey Shore vacation during the first 11 weeks of the season, when the ocean had that ice-cubes-in-water, ankle-numbing chill to it, Jan Nossbaum of Maple Glen has a message for you.

"The water is beautiful, warm," Nossbaum said, settling into the beach at Washington Avenue in Margate yesterday just before noon, with the ocean temp about 72 degrees. "And it's crystal clear. Mayah [her 6-year-old daughter] was in for an hour and a half. It's the first time she's gone all the way in."

Yes, with about two weeks of bearable temperatures under its belt (let's define bearable as 68 degrees and higher), the Atlantic Ocean has finally turned into a body of water you can splash around in for more than 30 seconds. (Although the ocean temperature may be on its way down in the next few days.)

The warming trend of the last two weeks was brought on by winds that finally came in from the southeast and brought the warm water into shore, as well as just, well, the cumulative effect of summer heat. But despite that, the summer of 2008 will probably be remembered as the summer the ocean temperature rose more slowly than the gas prices.

For the brave - and those in denial - 60 (degrees) became the new 70, and those folks just took the plunge anyway. For others, they just got more ice cream.

"It was terrible," said Ermindo Marsini, 22, a member of the Margate Beach Patrol, overseeing dozens of kids in lifeguard camp yesterday. He said some people acted as if the lifeguards were somehow responsible. "It would be 84 degrees on the beach, and people wouldn't be going in the water, only the young. People would come up and say, Why is the ocean cold?"

The answer, according to Stewart Farrell, a professor of marine and coastal sciences at Richard Stockton College, near Atlantic City, was not that earth-shattering. Four rare nor'easters in April and May reduced the water temperature before the season even started, packing the shelf with cold North Atlantic water, and giving the ocean a bigger handicap in its quest to reach comfortable temperatures in time for your vacation week at the Shore.

Canada was also to blame, he said, with persistent winds from the northwest - the dreaded fly-bearing land breeze - that pushed the warmer surface waters out to sea and brought up the colder waters from underneath.

Plus, the generally windy conditions stubbornly mixed up the ocean column, meaning that colder water was continually being added to whatever part of the ocean managed to get warm from the sun.

But in the end, the natural logic of the season prevailed.

"It's been a slower process this year," said Farrell. "It's been warming up since June."

But the ocean stayed stubbornly in the low 60s until, really, around Aug. 5, when it began cracking the high- 60s, low-70s mark. And there it has stayed, at times veering tropically into the upper 70s, where it was on Monday. But the winds may be shifting again.

Farrell said the next few days should see a return of those Canadian winds, and another occurrence of upwelling - when winds blow the warmer surface water out to sea, and it is replaced with colder water from the ocean depths. Those winds will keep any remnants of Tropical Storm Fay away from the Shore, but the ocean temperature should drop again, though Farrell thinks the drop will not be as dramatic, given all the warming that has taken place.

"The potential for upwelling is there," he said. "But the upwelling temperature is going to be warmer than it was in June. The people won't be freezing their butts off. But it'll be cooler than it was."

Farrell also noted that back in February, the Atlantic Ocean was 42 degrees, which is significantly warmer than usual at that time. So take that and put it in your what-does-this-mean-in-terms-of-global-warming cocktail.

So far, the warmer water has not brought about an influx of jellyfish, commonly associated with a warmer ocean, according to Avalon Beach Patrol Capt. Murray Wolf, who, by the way, noted that shifting winds yesterday had already dropped the ocean down to the mid-60s in Avalon.

Back at the lifeguard stand in Margate yesterday, beach patrol member Brittany Westcott, 24, said people seemed to be trying to make up for lost ocean time. About 200 people were counted in the water over the weekend at each stand in Margate, when temperatures were in the mid to high 70s.

And people were actually staying in the ocean, doing normal things like body surfing, unlike earlier in the season when, she said, people would "jump right in and wouldn't be in for more than a minute and a half."

The cold ocean did have a significant effect on lifeguard duties this summer, she noted. With hardly anyone in the ocean, she said, "it did make it a lot easier."

Of course, with Labor Day falling on a buzz-killing Sept. 1 this year, there are less than two weeks to enjoy that finally summer-like ocean.

"That's why September is the best," lifeguard Marsini noted.

Remember that when you're standing on the sidelines of the soccer field. Marsini will be enjoying the balmy surf, along with other locals. "That's what always happens," he said. "Come September, the water's going to be really warm."