Why Is The Ocean So, So Cold in July?

This story was reported and written by Patch field editor Daniel Nee.

The sun was out, the birds were singing and the surf was calm on Monday along the Jersey Shore. All that was missing were people swimming in the water.

Chilly water temperatures have swimmers relegated to the sand up and down the coast over the past several days and through most of June. 

On Monday morning at 11 a.m., the ocean water temperature was just 55 degrees at Atlantic City's Steel Pier (see real-time readings of ocean temperatures in the region). By evening, it had warmed up to only 63 degrees.

Upwelling — the process of the wind blowing warm surface water out to sea and having it replaced by chillier water from the ocean's depths — is to blame, said Mike Gorse, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly. 

"We've been dealing with a persistent south-southwest flow of air, and that causes an upwelling of cold water," he told Patch on Monday afternoon. "It's kind of like an overturning of the water. The surface winds are blowing the warmer water from the surface."

The bad news is that relief is not in the immediate forecast. 

"For most of this week, we're still going to be underneath that south-southwest wind that should be maintaining what we have now," said Gorse.

The ocean temperature started at 56 degrees on June 1, first topped 60 on June 4 and flirted with 65 on June 9. It hit the magic 70-degree mark on a handful of days in the week of June 22 to 29, but it plummeted from there.

The historic average water temperature for the week of July 1 to 15 is 69 degrees.