Some Jersey Shore Towns Experiencing Colder Than Normal Ocean Water Temperatures
By John McDevitt
ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (CBS) - If you're headed to Atlantic City-area beaches this weekend, brace yourself for cold ocean temperatures.
With ocean temperatures in the mid-to-upper 50's in Atlantic City, there were those who would barely get their feet wet and others who didn't mind so much.
Rich and Kathy Czajkowski of Buffalo are on vacation. "I calling it refreshing," Rich says. "When you get in your toes tingle a little bit and then your body just gets use to it and it's great".
"No bone chilling," Kathy says. "And my feet are numb."
Reporter: "Do you often disagree?"
Kathy: "Well we agree to disagree. After 40 years of marriage. Yes. It's been working."
Experts say cold water "upwelling" driven by south/south west winds is the reason for the unseasonable water near A.C. beaches.
Josh Kohut, is a marine scientist and teaches oceanography at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
"Because of this persistent wind and that kind of weather pattern that we had for the last week and a half what replaces that warm water that is pushed off shore is that much colder water that is down near the bottom."
Dave Robinson with the New Jersey Climate Office says not all shore points are feeling the chill, because they're not affected by the upswell.
"And what they serve to do along the New Jersey coast is to push the water up away from the coast, kind of make a right turn away from the coast. And that necessitates colder water coming up from below. Now, if you're down in Cape May, you don't necessarily have that trajectory, you've got the southerly winds bringing warm water up on towards the shore."
Cape May ocean temps for instance have been in the 70's this week as those southerly winds are bringing warmer water towards land.
