Sea Water Temperature website

IronMikeIronMike Northern VirginiaCharter Member

Just found this website planning our next beach vacation. Looks like it might be good for those of us into this hobby.

We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams

JenAtortuga

Comments

  • timsroottimsroot Spring, TXCharter Member

    www.ndbc.noaa.gov also has good, if not as comprehensive, information. Bonus info for wave height and air temperature, depending on which buoy you are looking at.

    IronMikeRobertPalmese
  • SoloSolo B.C. CanadaSenior Member

    IronMike said:
    Just found this website planning our next beach vacation. Looks like it might be good for those of us into this hobby.

    Thanks for this. Just bookmarked it for future reference!

  • malinakamalinaka Seattle, WACharter Member

    You know how its always colder in that one spot on the beach you train at? That's what I think of when I see pretty maps of the earth showing water temperature.

    That said: for those who haven't seen https://earth.nullschool.net/, be prepared to be wowwed. There's an option to overlay Sea Surface Temperature (SST).

    evmosuziedods

    I don't wear a wetsuit; it gives the ocean a sporting chance.

  • nitelingniteling Victoria, BC, CanadaMember

    One thing of note, most of the sea temperature websites use satellite-based data. Says the wikipedia page about such measurements:

    in infrared remote sensing methodology the radiation emanates from the top "skin" of the ocean, approximately the top 0.01 mm or less, which may not represent the bulk temperature of the upper meter

    It also mentions a microwave-based method of sensing; apparently that gets the top 1 mm -- both not very representative of the top metre or so you'll be swimming in.

    I kept getting readings a few degrees colder from my thermometer, and was confused because while it is cheap it does return the right values for ice water, boiling water, and the inside of my mouth, so I thought it had some kind of weird glitch just around the 5 to 15 degree range, until I read that :)

    (I still don't entirely trust it; one of my back burner projects is to acquire a couple more thermometers of different types and then work out from an average reading of all of them, what the range of difference is between seatemperature.org , buoy and lighthouse-based measurements, and what you're likely to encounter while swimming. Has anyone else already done this?)

  • timsroottimsroot Spring, TXCharter Member

    niteling said:
    One thing of note, most of the sea temperature websites use satellite-based data. Says the wikipedia page about such measurements:

    NOAA's website uses buoy data. With that said, I don't know the depth of their water temperature reading, so it still may return data that is unrealistic to what you will be swimming in.

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