Shivers! Upwelling responsible for current cold ocean temperatures

That dip in the ocean after a nice long nap on the beach has not been pleasant for many at the Jersey Shore in recent days. 

It’s because ocean temperatures have dropped to the upper 50s to middle 60s, Rutgers Coastal Ocean Observation Lab data indicates. 

The culprit?

Upwelling, according to forecasters at WeatherWorks, a weather consulting firm based in Hackettstown, NJ.

Josh Kohut, a physical oceanographer at Rutgers University, recently sat down with NewsWorks’ The Pulse to discuss ocean temperature swings. He described the upwelling effect as winds taking cold water that sits down deep and moving it toward the beach. 

“So when upwelling happens, it’s when you have these really nice summertime breezes from the South, Southwest,” Kohut said. “And when you have wind coming from the South, Southwest, along our coast, because we’re on a rotating planet, it actually pushes that warm water that we’ve been talking about in the summer, offshore, away from the beach. As that water moves away from the beach, what replaces it is that really cold water from the cold pool.”

Listen to Kohut discuss the phenomenon here.