Atlantic Experiences Sudden Temperature Dive

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>

> SHIVERING IN THE SURF

> ATLANTIC'S SUDDEN TEMPERATURE DIVE A MIDSUMMER MYSTERY FOR SCIENTISTS

> By John F. Kelly

> Washington Post Staff Writer

> Thursday, August 7, 2003; Page A01

>

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25865-2003Aug6?language=printer

>

> David Quillin, a surfer from Maryland's Eastern Shore, knows what cold

> seawater feels like: It makes exposed flesh feel like it's burning, sets

> hands and feet to tingling, numbs the body and, after repeated dunkings,

> produces a painful " ice cream " headache.

>

> The 38-year-old architect expects all of this when he surfs the frigid

> waters off Ocean City in January. He didn't expect it in the middle of

> summer. But it's just what Quillin encountered when he paddled his board

> into the surf two weeks ago.

>

> " I've never experienced it in my whole life, " he recounted, " where the

water

> right along shore could be that radically cold. "

>

> Quillin isn't alone in his observation. Surfers, lifeguards, anglers and

> others who regularly dip a toe into the Atlantic have noticed this summer

> that water that is typically bathwater-warm has occasionally become

> fjord-cold.

>

> " During [most of] July, our water temperatures were, I would say, right

> around normal, " said Capt. Butch Arbin, head of the Ocean City Beach

Patrol.

> That's in the low 70s. About two weeks ago, he said, " there was a

tremendous

> change in temperature, [dropping] as much as 10 degrees overnight. "

>

> It was so cold Monday, Arbin said, that his guards pulled from the surf a

> teenage girl who was shaking uncontrollably and near hypothermia. (She

> thawed out in an ambulance.)

>

> The unseasonable chill started easing this week, but beachgoers from as

far

> afield as Virginia Beach, Nags Head, N.C., Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Daytona

> Beach, Fla., have been curious about the precipitous drop. So many people

> have contacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that

> William Tseng, an oceanographer at NOAA's Silver Spring headquarters, is

> investigating the phenomenon.

>

> He's examining three possible causes: increased river runoff from this

> spring's frequent rains; a current of cold seawater snaking down from the

> North Atlantic; and an event known as " coastal upwelling. "

>

> While Tseng and other researchers caution that it's only a guess -- they

> want to pore over data gleaned from satellites, buoys and other sources --

> the prime suspect appears to be coastal upwelling. The driving force

behind

> upwelling is persistent winds that blow up the coast from the south or

> southwest. The winds push away the warm surface layer of water, which is

> then carried eastward as the Earth spins, a process known as the Coriolis

> force.

>

> " We're on a rotating planet, so there's a tendency for things to veer to

the

> right when they start moving, " said Robert J. Chant of Rutgers

University's

> Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences. " Water goes to the right of the

> wind. So in the case of coastal oceans, water goes to the right and has to

> be replaced. "

>

> Unfortunately for thousands of bikini-wearing and boogie-boarding

> vacationers, what it's replaced by is colder water from the bottom of the

> ocean. The icy liquid comes burbling up from the depths as if on a

conveyor

> belt.

>

> It's a fairly typical midsummer phenomenon, as southerly winds bring hot,

> humid air up from the Gulf of Mexico. It may have been made more

pronounced

> this year by the severe winter that gripped the Eastern Seaboard. The

memory

> of that frigid season lives on in the vast ocean, which warms up much more

> slowly than does land.

>

> Ocean City's Arbin is convinced that upwelling is to blame for the cold

> water that stung his feet last week. In the weekly bulletin he distributes

> to his 200 employees, he included an explanation of upwelling and a

diagram

> of the process at work.

>

> " People were walking up and asking " why the water was cold, he said. This

> way, " it's not just a dumb lifeguard going, 'I dunno. It's cold.' "

>

> Courageous tourists -- kids especially -- are braving the chilly surf.

> Others prefer to sunbathe or build castles on the sun-kissed sand.

>

> " It's keeping a lot of them out of the water, that's for sure, " said Kelly

> Marshall, on the phone from the front desk of Ocean City's Santa Maria

Hotel

> on the Boardwalk.

>

> Don Hutson, captain of ocean rescue in Nags Head, said he's never seen

water

> this cold for this long. " They're showing 60 degrees at the Duck research

> pier, " Hutson, 36, said of the Outer Banks town. " If it's 60, it's the low

> end of that 60. "

>

> Legs have been tingling in Rehoboth Beach, Del., too. The water

temperature

> was in the low 70s about two weeks ago, said Lt. Thad Zimmer, 27, of the

> beach patrol. " Then the wind changed and blew out all the warm water,

> causing cold water to take its place, " he said.

>

> Ron Kuhlman of the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau said his

> office hasn't received any complaints. But Lt. Carl Throckmorton of the

> Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service said he's noticed it.

>

> " It's nothing that's keeping people out of the water, " said Throckmorton,

> 29. " I assume the tourists here don't even realize it. Those of us who are

> out in it consistently are noticing a drop in the temperature. "

>

> So are anglers, who monitor water temperature with the obsessive devotion

of

> day traders studying stock prices.

>

> " I've noticed some local charter captains saying tuna fishing hasn't been

as

> good this year, " said Jim Motsko, president of the White Marlin Open

Fishing

> Tournament in Ocean City. " The season seems to be very late coming on. . .

..

> It seems that whole fishing season is three weeks late. "

>

> On the other hand, said Dale Timmons, publisher of the Coastal Fisherman

> newspaper, the cold water lured chill-loving striped bass close to shore.

> " We had two to three weeks of great rockfish, which we don't normally get

> till fall, " he said. (For his part, Timmons thinks the cold snap is the

> result of a recalcitrant Gulf Stream denying the mid-Atlantic eddies of

warm

> water.)

>

> Surfing architect David Quillin spent years in California riding his board

> and enduring that coast's cold water. After venturing into the surf last

> week in just swim trunks, he was back the next day in a torso-covering

> " spring suit. "

>

> " I just refused to believe I would have to wear a full suit at the end of

> July, " Quillin said. " And I still froze. Then I thought: I don't care what

I

> look like. I'm wearing a full suit. "

>

>