Forster - early Jan. 2004 - water temp

[HSW]

Just wondering if anyone spent some time in the water around the Forster/Seal's area early in January?

Having a look a what appears to be an "upwelling" event from about the 1st to the 5th?

If anyone was in the area and could remember or have a shot at:

When the water started to cool?
When the water started to warm?
How cold it got?

Any or all of the above would be a great help (and send you straight to legend status!)

Unfortunately I was away but have got the relevant SST charts but nothing beats an actual report.

Cheers

[thermalben]

G'day HSW

I wasn't in the water, but this was certainly an upwelling event - it was discussed throughout numerous media, and most surf reporters across the board in the Sydney region reported very cool/cold water temps in the first week of January (somewhere down to 17/18 degrees in places!).

By my archives, it started to get cold sometime around Jan 1st or just before, and started to warm up sometime around the 8th or so with the arrival of a shallow southerly change. According to SST data, it seemed to be a local effect within the Sydney region - not penetrating much further north than Forster. However, fog was reported along most of this coastline from the 5th through to the 8th or 9th - a classic sign of significantly cooler SST's (in conjunction with a few other parameters).

This article from the SMH was published on the 5th:

Somebody turn off the cold tap, it's giving us the shivers
Date: January 5 2004
By Sue Lowe

While spectators at the SCG sweltered, swimmers at some of Sydney's beaches faced mid-winter temperatures. On Saturday, Bronte Beach lifeguards recorded a biting low of 16.5 degrees, about as cold as it ever gets, and five degrees colder than bathers could have expected for the time of year. At Clovelly yesterday the water temperature was 18 degrees.

"It's frigging cold, but it's good," said Darren Boehm, who claimed to have sspent "a good five minutes" in the water. "You've just got to adjust," he said.

Matt Phillips, a beach inspector at Clovelly, blamed the icy conditions on north-easterly winds and swell. "When you get a north-easter, the current spins in the opposite direction to what you'd expect and water from the south starts coming in. [Saturday] was the coldest it has been."

Ben Matson, a surf forecaster with coastalwatch.com, said northerly winds also produced an "upwelling effect" in which the ocean's surface water was displaced by colder, deeper water. "People associate northerlies with warm weather, but it actually brings colder water temperatures. We need a solid round of southerlies," he said.

Olivia Towning and Jaimie Laverty, both aged 10, described their swim at Clovelly as refreshing. "It is quite cold, but when you're in you get used to it," Olivia said. The pair stayed in for half an hour. "It was much colder yesterday," Jaimie said.

The good news, depending on who you talk to, is that warmer water may be on the way. Brett Dutschke, meteorologist with The Weather Company, which provides weather reports to broadcast media, said a small area of cold water had been hugging the Sydney coast for the past few days. However, that was likely to be displaced by more inviting, even slightly warm water, at 22 degrees, which is now sitting one to two kilometres off the coast.

But those waiting for peak summer temperatures as high as 24 degrees, will have to keep dry until next month or March.

[HSW]

Howdy TB,

That’s for that.

Have just been having a look at the MSL anals for the period and it’s almost text book stuff for upwelling.

Looks like the main centre was around the Hawks Nest to Mongrel Brush stretch, got some reports from the area of water temps in the range of 15.5 down to a low of 14.9 and persistent sea fog for the 4th and 5th, the SST charts show a huge temperature gradient north east of the area (all very interesting!).

just had a quick peruse of the charts and it looks as if later in the week should produce some epic…….......