South Florida Ocean Water Temp Hits 101 degrees

[Bayview]

gosh. That’s hot.

If there we’re ever waves, how to keep your stick waxed? Tropical won’t work.

I hope sex wax or sticky bumps are working on a formulation change to evolve with the times.

 

[Duffy LaCoronilla]

The general populace constantly putting into question professionals in the field is not helpful to anyone.

Stupid thing to say.


I use instruments to measure pressure, flow, temperature every day. Calibration is a big deal. My LEL meter is calibrated before every use.

I am a professional in the field.

 

[Woke AF]

Stupid thing to say.


I use instruments to measure pressure, flow, temperature every day. Calibration is a big deal. My LEL meter is calibrated before every use.

I am a professional in the field.

Yes, most of us are professionals in one field or another. So you are a marine biologist/oceanographer too? At one point you said you drive for Uber. Many hats, bro.

 

[SurfFuerteventura]

Ocean's warming up everywhere...

Record high Temps for Mediterranean

Many countries bordering the Med are having serious trouble containing fires.

Over 40 dead in Algeria from the fires.

Ain't no joke, calibrated thermometers or not.

 

[Sharkbiscuit]

When I check the Mayport station to see what the water temp is, I only trust what it says if I know it's ocean water. High tide is one way, but IMHO the best measure of that is to pick a reading from after the conductivity jumps when the ocean salt water displaces the fresh St. John's River water.

If you have a very shallow, small body of water with one outlet in Florida, if the wind is blowing away from the one inlet/outlet, the bottom is dark, and there are no clouds, it's going to heat up at warp speed.

If it then gets a hellacious rain storm dumping on it, rear flank downdraft blowing on it, I would not be surprised to see a much wider variance than the ~ 10 degrees shown in the image. You can get an inch in an hour in a strong summer thunderstorm and in a drained-out, heated up mudflat, that's going to do a number on the temp, plus there's typically strong breezy conditions prior to and during the storm.

If you look at the record lows for the peak of Summer's dog days, roughly mid-July through mid-August in Florida, you're going to see lots of 68. Sure we get off season cold fronts in June, early season cold fronts getting closer to Labor Day.

Most dry nights it's probably not dropping below 80, really. For example, last night it didn't rain in this area, and the Mayport observation never went below 81.

So why the flat 68 for weeks, when the rest of the year's record lows are much more wobbly?

Because basically every record low for most of July and early-mid August was set when descending air from a strong thunderstorm dropped the temperature. I bet if they were timestamped you'd be confused. The record lows most of the year would be set just before sunrise, when it had all night to cool off. This time of year, it's probably set during the mid-late afternoon, typically the hottest time of the day - but also the most volatile and subject to the strongest storms.

The thermometer depth at Manatee Bay is listed as 1.5 meters.

 

[Clayster]

The thermometer is probably fine. Explanation would be, Manatee Bay doesn't get cross-flushed, and if the wind is in the Southwest (it was in this case), the water level will be noticeably lower. Most likely it has a dark mud bottom, so it heats up like crazy in the heat of the day. No rain, and it gets over 100. So probably the wind was working against whatever incoming tide there was and it blazed under the sun, when normally, that area sees very persistent E/ESE/SE trades this time of year, and even if it doesn't get directly rained on, odds are, the sun is probably behind thunderheads after 2-3pm most days.

It's not like the rest of those observations are all directly connected to Manatee Bay, and they're not all in a wide-open swath of water like Florida Bay. They're in these little pockets off sounds on the backside of the Upper Keys, basically where the Everglades end and the shallow water lagoon habitat begins.

I can't speak for this season at that end of the state. Up in North Florida, we had one of the more mild Mays, especially at the end, I've ever seen. Two weeks into June and someone cranked the heat, and it's been hotter than normal, a bit wetter than normal, and more way more offshore than normal.

Some Summers, it feels like I can go most of the summer and never see it offshore at lunch time, like it will go dead at 10:45-11, start to come onshore 11:15, be textured at noon, and choppy by 12:30. Not this year. Tons of days where it's offshore all day, or it's well into the afternoon before it swings around.

This, the readings are from very shallow water in the Gulf, which heats up very quickly.

Also, thunderstorms haven't been as prevalent this summer, and east winds coming off the Atlantic (which cool things off a bit) have been fairly minimal, with winds uncharacteristically idling out of the west/southwest.

 

[SurfFuerteventura]

Live updates on Med Fires - Spanish press ABC

 

[Ranga]

While I don't dispute that any of this is happening, I wonder if this is our next middle-class-crushing crisis/American Oligarch money-grab . . .

 

[Sharkbiscuit]

While I don't dispute that any of this is happening, I wonder if this is our next middle-class-crushing crisis/American Oligarch money-grab . . .

That's called ChatGPT