False water temps, Dont be fooled...

[OceanCitySurfReport]

Just a heads up to anyone checking the reports on swell info iv noticed over the past few weeks that the water temp. has been reading higher then the actual water temp really is. I'v figured out why this is happening and figured i would let you guys know.

Alright so the real ocean temp is around 45 - 47 give or take, When you check the report you might see it in the mid 50's this is becasue swell info is pulling there temp data from the stations that are closest to the shore, So for example Ocean City's water temp is reading 56 becasue the station is set up in the bay at the coast guard station so when the tide is falling all of the warmer water that is in the bay passes by the temp. gauge on its way out the inlet causing it to read a false temp. This is why you are seeing a higher temp on here. If you want a true water temp your best source is to check the local buoy 44009 Here

Here's a photo to back up what I'm saying.


You can see above how warm the inland bays are, If you have any questions just ask ill reply.

Also check out the water temps on Google Maps from satellite data Here

[MATT JOHNSON]

Yeah its not swell fault it the reading at what depth the bouy is reading. When in doubt wear the a thicker suit. It better to roast and be cold

[OceanCitySurfReport]

Yeah its not swell fault it the reading at what depth the bouy is reading. When in doubt wear the a thicker suit. It better to roast and be cold

I know its just the source of data that's off, Every location is different so it all depends on the source of the data that's being pulled. Very true you can always flush your suit !

[ECsponger]

SHHHHH!!! Don't give away the secrets! If you tell the noobs (read mooks) that it's warmer they will think to pack less gear, then when they get in they will realize it's colder than they read on the charts, resulting in less water time for them, more water time for us!

[OceanCitySurfReport]

SHHHHH!!! Don't give away the secrets! If you tell the noobs (read mooks) that it's warmer they will think to pack less gear, then when they get in they will realize it's colder than they read on the charts, resulting in less water time for them, more water time for us!

Hahaha thats pretty good!

[wavejunkie]

yea, that happens all the time. i thought it was because they take they temp further offshore where the water is warmer. and what the hell does "accusal" mean?

[OceanCitySurfReport]

yea, that happens all the time. i thought it was because they take they temp further offshore where the water is warmer. and what the hell does "accusal" mean?

Yea most of the data is pulled closer to shore, and yea that comes from me failing to proof read the whole thing with some credit to $hitty spell check

[zach619]

Why doesn't someone living in OC MD and OC NJ each volunteer to start doing real life temperature readings. There is already a guy in OC MD that does it every day (for someone else of course, wink wink) but you shoud just contact the dude and have him release his data every few days...


His live temperature reading for today said that OC MD was 46 degrees on the dot... That was water NOT taken from the inlet or anywhere with shallow bay water around it, so that should be the most accurate reading....

And this all goes back to previous posts that we have all made discussing forecasting data etc... If you are pulling data realtime off of third party sources, your data gets skewed sometimes. Thats just life. Which is why when I ran my little surf forecasting site, my daily reports and readings were generally pretty legit. They were always within a foot or two size wise, the temps were always pretty close because the water temps dont change much, but still, everyday after I would surf in the morning, I would come back home, hop on the site for about 5 mintues and make any report/water temp adjsutments that I saw were off. Sometimes the thing would be off a few feet or something, so I would ahve to manually change the data...

But that was all info based on one 80 mile stretch of beach...

I know swellinfo caters to forecastings all over the world etc.... but it seems to me that the most common users, and the ones who have the most impact on this site all live in the mid-atlantic, so I encourage all of you guys to use any resources on here to SHARE real data with each other... I know it goes against everything ingrained in a surfers head. Why on earth would you want to help some other guy get a good session or invade your turf, but honestly, this is a community and we should share good information with each other...

And in 2 months, this conversation really doesn't matter. Who cares if it 66 or 69 degrees... It is PRETTY important if we are talking about if its 46 or 52... Now that makes a world of difference.

but if you have been surfing in the past week or so, you should pretty much know the water temps... If you see that the temps increased 7 degrees in two days, you can figure out that its wrong.

[OceanCitySurfReport]

Why doesn't someone living in OC MD and OC NJ each volunteer to start doing real life temperature readings. There is already a guy in OC MD that does it every day (for someone else of course, wink wink) but you shoud just contact the dude and have him release his data every few days...


His live temperature reading for today said that OC MD was 46 degrees on the dot... That was water NOT taken from the inlet or anywhere with shallow bay water around it, so that should be the most accurate reading....

And this all goes back to previous posts that we have all made discussing forecasting data etc... If you are pulling data realtime off of third party sources, your data gets skewed sometimes. Thats just life. Which is why when I ran my little surf forecasting site, my daily reports and readings were generally pretty legit. They were always within a foot or two size wise, the temps were always pretty close because the water temps dont change much, but still, everyday after I would surf in the morning, I would come back home, hop on the site for about 5 mintues and make any report/water temp adjsutments that I saw were off. Sometimes the thing would be off a few feet or something, so I would ahve to manually change the data...

But that was all info based on one 80 mile stretch of beach...

I know swellinfo caters to forecastings all over the world etc.... but it seems to me that the most common users, and the ones who have the most impact on this site all live in the mid-atlantic, so I encourage all of you guys to use any resources on here to SHARE real data with each other... I know it goes against everything ingrained in a surfers head. Why on earth would you want to help some other guy get a good session or invade your turf, but honestly, this is a community and we should share good information with each other...

And in 2 months, this conversation really doesn't matter. Who cares if it 66 or 69 degrees... It is PRETTY important if we are talking about if its 46 or 52... Now that makes a world of difference.

but if you have been surfing in the past week or so, you should pretty much know the water temps... If you see that the temps increased 7 degrees in two days, you can figure out that its wrong.

Well that's why i started OC Surf Report just becasue of that! I was tired of corporate surf reports running the scene like surfline and some others... so i started the local report. My water temps are just about on dot and are recorded everyday from multiple sources not just one temp gauge located miles away. I live 3 houses from the beach i walk out every morning check the conditions then check the data then after i verify they match up i push it to the public. No forecasting or guessing its on the money and most of the time i will stream the conditions live from my phone to you. Not from a ocean front house with a delay but from my feet in the sand feet from the breakers. Yea in the summer its not that big of a deal but right now it can be. What guy are you talking about the does the readings? PM it to me if you want

[rodndtube]

No rocket science here. It is cold. South of Cape Point is warmer. FL is warm. The tropics are very warm. One could also develop an algorithm that would come close to predicting the water temp for OC/Md.

How far off is the Station LWSD1 - 8557380 - Lewes, DE buoy on water temps? It usually seems close for 9 months of the year.