And the water temperature in Stone Harbor today may bear no resemblance to the water temperature nine feet below Steel Pier yesterday. When a southwest wind blows, cold bottom water replaces the warm surface water blown out to sea. Eberwine recalls a single day in the summer of 1988 when the ocean temperature fell from 79 to 53 degrees. A subtle dip would be about 5 degrees. The upwelling created by southwest winds is one of nature's cruel ironies.
Land breezes carry a nasty blend of heat and insects but make the water too cold for relief.
That leaves a mass of humanity stuck on the beach between the suffocating heat and the breath-taking cold. A good northeast wind brings back the warm water but often brings several days of wind and drenching rain along with it. In the protected bays, water is less subject to the wind and more likely to be warmed by the sun. Temperatures climb as you move away from the ocean water flushed through inlets with the tides. Anyone who has lived around the ocean for a lifetime knows in simpler terms the phenomena explained by Eberwine.