Coldest dive sites in USA

[TxIceDiver]

Michigan! We have an inland lake we dive a lot that is a steady 34F past 40ft, all year round. Can't get much colder than that, really!

I hear in Michigan that you guys just wish the water would warm up enough so that it would qualify as 'cold water diving'

 

[texdiveguy]

Thanks everyone for the great replies.....this is just one of those FUN threads......and yes Alaska is in the game!!!! Anyone else got a few chilly spots?????

 

[awd-turbo]

haha it is not top 10 or anything... but it is pretty funny being in the south, a NC quarry is 42f at 30 feet!!!

 

[micklock]

I would say the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'
The lake it is said never gives up her dead when the skies of november turn gloomy.
Michigan Sea Grant Coastwatch

 

[texdiveguy]

Here in far north Texas and southern Oklahoma local lakes will bottom out at around 42f in deep winter.

 

[jjhill]

0F under water? I kinda seriously doubt that as thats -17 celcius and unless youre diving in liquid gas that would pretty much make it solid?

Better hope you have enough air to last until Spring.

And its doesn't count because its not in the USA but I dive a cold high elevation freshwater mountain lake. Temperature in the early season (May-June) is about 37-39 F. One day I'll get a drysuit and additional training and try to dive it during ice up. As it currently stands I dive it with a 7 mm suit. The first dive is okay but putting on the wetsuit for a subsequent dive is a killer.

 

[seaducer]

My brother checked out in 1979 on a shore dive in NJ in January or February and said it was 29F. Coldest I have been was 39F below the thermocline, in June, offshore NJ.

May not hit the top 20 consistently, but it do get ccccccold here from time to time.

 

[off the grid]

Based on the characteristics of freshwater, temperature at depth should not be colder than 39 degrees. Below 39 degrees, water actually becomes less dense and rises which is why ice forms at the surface rather than at the bottom of water bodies. I don't think our diving temp guages are very acurate since I know mine can register 34 degrees at depth on a lot of my winter dives which should not be the case.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I agree. Water reaches its maximum density at 3.98 deg C (39 deg F). But through the water column it will decrease from 39 F at the bottom to just above 32 F right under the ice surface where it freezes on the underside of the ice. And the temp versus density curve is comparatively flat there, so 34 degree water on a dive is do-able and 35 to 39 is in my experience pretty common.

 

[texdiveguy]

I agree. Water reaches its maximum density at 3.98 deg C (39 deg F). But through the water column it will decrease from 39 F at the bottom to just above 32 F right under the ice surface where it freezes on the underside of the ice. And the temp versus density curve is comparatively flat there, so 34 degree water on a dive is do-able and 35 to 39 is in my experience pretty common.

The Great Lakes are a prime example of this in action.