Summer 2023 - General Discussion

Still like the south of France up here! Extensive straw looking grass. Driving along the roads it's like piles of straw!

It’s really foggy in Dublin City!

As nice as the warm spell has been , i wonder how our marine life is doing, one or two degrees wouldn't really concern me but 4-5C seems quite extreme and a bit alarming .

I'm guessing part of the reason for the high build up of surface temperatures is the total lack of any wind or swell in the past 8 weeks or so in a large chunk of the Atlantic to our west. You'd sometimes get 2-3 weeks if blocking and no activity but this is fairly anomalous.

This has likely allowed a fairly strong thermocline to develop e.g. the top couple of metres are warming up like a lake and there is no wind or swell to create mixing to allow the colder water up to the surface. In a typical year you wouldn't go long before some wind or swell would be present in this area to our west. In the Irish sea, I'm guessing that the large tidal flushing present here never allows this thermocline to build up.

One big swell/storm event off the west coast would allow mixing and the restoration of cold waters to the surface. This is what I'm guessing, somebody else may be able to make a more accurate analysis.

Irish sea is as cold as usual. 100% not 4/5 degrees warmer where I swim.

Let's hope the temps come down before hurricane season!

The Irish sea absolutely is warmer than usual. By around 3º. And as someone who swims in the Irish sea regularly in summer you can absolutely feel it. Exception being the Antrim coast.

Not sure what people are talking about...

Besides, the Irish sea always takes longer to warm up than the Atlantic (deeper waters perhaps).

I swim the Irish sea regularly all year round. Kiliney was 14.5 degrees today apparently, which is slightly above what I'd have thought. But its far from an unusual temp.

I was out there yesterday and it felt the same as it always does this time of year. Baltic.

Just less baltic than the depths of winter.

Its well within max averages though. Its not some abnormal temp. Fair enough it's warmer than last year but I'm sure if I trawl back I'd find similar temps for other years.

I'm not swimming in 16 degrees. I swam in 14.5 and it felt the same as 13.5 to me.

Its not 4/5 degrees above normal which is what i was responding to with my OP. I know now it was the Atlantic not Irish being referenced.

I was thinking there's no way what i swam in yesterday was the same temperature as what I'd swim in in January in tenerife.

13.8 in 2014 on the same day. Not a million miles away. Again I'm not "feeling" anything. It was 14.5 in killiney today, not 16.

Lol! Regardless of you guys all debating the temps, I don’t know how you do it swimming in the colds seas around here!

The med is about as cold as I like it! Even that has a chill when you first get in!

Sea temp in Dubai on my trip was 32c. Now that’s what I’m talking about! Comfort right from the get go!

Honestly, even though it's bracing, that's half the fun. You really feel great after.

I wouldn't get in before late May mind, but in summer until late September it's actually not that bad.

Great for the skin. Great for the soul. You should honestly try it.

Also, you get used to it. For me the first drip in late May always feels so cold, but you get used to it the more you do it, and by late June or early July you start saying it feels 'mild' :-)

Yes, I would too. I love swimming in the Atlantic. I have to work myself up to take the plunge but when I do as you say it feels refreshing afterwards. Also as you mentioned it's good fun swimming in with the waves on a breezy day .

If the rest of the summer is going to be like this, I don't think I'd be able to cope. The third summer in a row with excessive humidity non stop and ridiculously warm nights.

Suppose it has the same effects as having cold showers. Good for the nervous system