August 7, 2024 — Families heading to the Jersey Shore this week are facing unusually cold ocean temperatures.
Professor Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert, who chairs Stockton University’s Marine Science Program, said in the past week, the water temperature has plummeted from the low-to-mid-70s to the low-to-mid-50s around Atlantic City and shore towns to the south. She added those temperatures are “unusually cold for this time of late July, early August.”
This weather phenomenon is known as “upwelling,” which, Pfeiffer-Herbert explained, is caused specifically by winds from the south pushing water away from the shore.