After a cold start to summer, ocean temps are warming up off the Jersey Shore

VENTNOR CITY, New Jersey (WPVI) -- After a cold start to the summer, the Jersey Shore is now seeing some of the warmest water of the season.

Water temperatures were above 83 degrees on Thursday in Atlantic City and around 78 degrees near Cape May. That's a far cry from earlier this summer when water was in the 60s and low 70s.

"It's been really cold this summer," said Marissa Delpalazoo, of Ventnor City. "So, today is refreshing that you can actually put your foot in there now."

Action News saw plenty of people enjoying the water in Ventnor City. Many had waited to go out into the water until it warmed up.

"This year we could hardly get past our ankles. It was 62 degrees the last couple weekends and weeks well into August," Said Jim Calla, who's lived in Ventnor City since 2007.

So what's changed, especially with the record heat we've seen in Philadelphia and across the country this year? According to Meteorologist Adam Joseph, it's all about the wind.

"If the wind is prevailing out of the east, like right now, you bring those warm Gulf Stream waters toward the coastline," said Joseph. "But for much of the summer we've had a land breeze, so that pushes all that warm surface water out to sea and it brings up all that colder water from down below known as upwelling."

Experts say warmer water can mean a higher chance for a rip current and larger waves. As for hurricanes, while they do feed off warm waters, that is more of a concern in deeper waters in the south. Hurricanes tend to lose strength as they travel north.