Va. The equipment was upgraded in 1991, but meteorologists have water temperature data from the Steel Pier dating back to 1911. Other probes are submerged in the Cape May Canal and at Barnegat Inlet. The devices periodically sample the ocean temperature and report an hourly average, according to O'Hargan. The weather services are not dipping thermometers into the ocean. They're surfing the Web to find the latest readings, according to Paul Mount, climatologist for AccuWeather.
Newspapers usually report yesterday's water temperatures.
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.