Here’s Why It’s Literally Cooler at the Shore

You've heard the phrase 'cooler at the shore' whenever our chief meteorologist Dan Zarrow gives you the weather forecast during the summer. Here's why.

During summer, sometimes the only place to get any relief is to get to the beach and oceanfront, where temperatures are lower than the poor folks stuck inland.

It's all courtesy of the heat capacity of the ocean and the sea breeze created by the difference between the warm air over land and the cool air hovering over the ocean (which is lately around 72 degrees in our area).

Ocean water takes much longer to heat up than land, so shore towns generally have more comfortable temperatures than inland areas. The difference can be extreme at times, as early-season beach fans know.

Conversely, it takes the ocean water much longer to cool off in the fall and winter, so you when it's cold, icy, or snowy inland, it is frequently 'warmer at the shore.'

The ocean doesn't just absorb warmth, it also helps distribute it around the globe. Without the ocean, air temperatures would be mush more extreme -- super hot at the equator and frigid toward the poles. As a result, much less of Earth's land and climate would be fit for human life.

NJ Sea Grant brings us incredible info about our ocean every Friday live from our Asbury Park Boardwalk studio, or you can CLICK HERE for more info.