Current water temperature?

[BTravlin]

We will be diving there next Sat. (12/12) - the weather forecast on weather.com is showing rain. How accurate is the long term forecasting like this? We sail on Thursday so I guess the weekend forecast will be out by Wednesday. Will we still be able to dive if it is raining? If there forecast is 60 percent rain, will we see any sun?

We always watch the weather forecasts before each trip and it seems like the forecast always shows rain daily no matter what time of year we're going. We get there and seldom encounter any rain at all.

 

[mstevens]

To compare your local temps to the temps here is really irrelevent.

Agreed. That's why I didn't do it. I compared the RANGE of temperatures in response to the claim that a 7F (or nearly 4C) change over the course of an entire year is quite small. Personally, I wouldn't dream of diving around here. Too cold.

 

[CZMDM]

Everything is relative:

At 79f. hurricanes don't form.
At 81f. they do.

Water boils at 212f
At 209 it does not.

At 98.6f you are healthy.
At 100.6f you are in the hospital.

At 84f the water is very warm.
At 78f the majority of people need a wetsuit.

If you don't think 1 or 2 degrees can make a huge difference....you should talk to any chef.
The OP was obviously asking about comfort in the cooler water. I don't think the point of his post was to discern percentages or ranges. It was about will he need a wetsuit for comfort.

BTW: although it is totally correct that there are no thermoclines, after it rains the fresh water is vented out through the reef and you can run into area's that are several degrees colder than most of the water around it.

 

[Diver Kat]

The OP was obviously asking about comfort in the cooler water. I don't think the point of his post was to discern percentages or ranges. It was about will he need a wetsuit for comfort.

That's exactly why I always ask around what the water temp is just before a trip. At 80-82, or higher, I can get by with a skin, but a degree or two below that and I'll switch to a 3 mil shorty, or maybe even the 3 mil full. It's amazing how much just a degree or two changes the comfort level!

BTW: although it is totally correct that there are no thermoclines, after it rains the fresh water is vented out through the reef and you can run into area's that are several degrees colder than most of the water around it.

Interesting to know!

 

[FishOutUvH2O]

BTW: although it is totally correct that there are no thermoclines, after it rains the fresh water is vented out through the reef and you can run into area's that are several degrees colder than most of the water around it.

It doesn't have to rain for this to occur. You can experience the "fun" of fresh water venting on any given day. It's really noticeable at Horseshoes. Where you'll hit cold water at the same moment you notice you've lost buoyancy and begin to drop.

As far as a slight temperature change goes, from someone who strives to not wear exposure protection, I agree, a couple of degrees (Fahrenheit) can definitely make a world of difference.

 

[mstevens]

At 79f. hurricanes don't form.
At 81f. they do.

This is untrue. Most hurricanes form when average water temperatures are above 26.5C or 79.7F, but nobody has ever measured water temperatures at the moment and location that a hurricane has started. It's quite likely that a degree Fahrenheit or so one way or the other is not the deciding factor. It's certainly not the case that hurricanes magically form whenever the water temperature goes up 2F, or the tropics would have them constantly.

At 98.6f you are healthy.
At 100.6f you are in the hospital.

Not in any hospital that I've ever worked at, unless I'm working with a low-grade fever. You do know that 98.6F is really a complete fiction, right? It's used because that's equivalent to 37C, which is a nice, round number. 37C is more or less normal for most people most of the time, but there's a large range of normal. 100.6 or 38C is the point at which most people take some aspirin or acetaminophen.

If you don't think 1 or 2 degrees can make a huge difference....you should talk to any chef.

Talk to any cook and see if they have any ability at all to control temperatures to within a degree or two. There is no cooking technology that permits that. I don't actually think 1 or 2 degrees Fahrenheit makes any detectable difference in any recipe. Even in long sous-vide preparations where temperature is controlled as closely as possible it cycles over a fairly wide range of up to +/- 5F from the target. Can you think of an example where a single degree or two does make a noticeable difference?

BTW, are you actually saying that my statement that it's typically a few degrees below 80F in the winter and a few degrees above 80F in the summer is incorrect?

 

[CZMDM]

Well you have just demonstrated that you will argue about anything and have made it clear that you do no know much about hurricanes, fevers or cooking . You have also made it clear that you cannot be wrong no matter how wrong you are.

Hurricanes: Over 80 IS the magical number. There are other factors involved, but the main factor in hurrcane development is water temp. You notice that the Western Pacific where the water remains warmer longer has a much longer season than we do here in the Caribbean If you lived in the tropics and went by what you learned and not what you think, you would know this and believe me when you live in an area where certain weather can affect your entire well being.....you tend to learn quickly. So if it's over 80f to form and the water rarely gets warmer than 84+f. that just proves my point that dramatic changes can occur with very little difference in temp.

Most people know that when you have a fever of near 101f. you are very, very sick (unless you are a small child). I don't know why you would even argue that fact. I am surprised that you didn't correct me on the temperature point for boiling water....after all you could have argued that at 10,000 feet the water would take two more degrees f. to boil.

The part about cooking I got out of a cookbook (and it was talking about how temps could not be more than 2 degrees f. to make a difference, on certain dishes), so maybe you want to argue with Betty Crocker. Maybe millions of chefs (both home and professional) are wrong and you are right.

The whole point of the thread, which seems extremely difficult for you to understand was diving comfort. I clearly pointed out that in my "experience" the water temps go from 77+f.-84+f.. ( I didn't have to look it up or read a sticky). My point was that at the low end you need a lot of thermal protection (wetsuit) and at the high end you do not. The entire point was how much different the types of exposure gear you would need on such a short "range" of temperature changes.

All I can say is that out of thousands of dives here both in winter and summer......the winter water which is only a few degrees less than in the summer warrants a great deal more themal protection, than the summer months.

All I was trying to do was to help people be comfortable by making the original post. Then you have to carry on about "ranges", your theory of hurricane development and such. The fact of the matter is that most people would be cold if not miserable diving in the winter without a wetsuit. Most people seem to agree with the fact that a few degrees make big dif in wetsuit use.

I'll let you have the last word as I think that even though you don't seem to get it....most people do.

 

[pidgiepoo]

Boy am I learning a lot..or at least I think I am

 

[mstevens]

Most people know that when you have a fever of near 101f. you are very, very sick (unless you are a small child). I don't know why you would even argue that fact.

It's probably got something to do with my having gone to medical school and practiced medicine for over 20 years.

Normal oral body temperature in humans ranges up to 99.5F. People routinely have temperatures of around 101F with fairly trivial medical problems that are nowhere near life-threatening. If you showed up in any emergency department that I know of anywhere in the world with a primary symptom of an oral temperature of 101F (what we refer to as a "low-grade fever") you'd most likely be given some acetaminophen and sent home.

You bring up spurious arguments, I refute them. I won't bother with the others, since many of them are just as bogus as your body temperature example. I was particularly amused by the nonsense about people in the tropics somehow magically having "much thinner blood."

Nobody, least of all me, is claiming that some people don't feel chilly in 78F water or that they feel warmer in 84F water.

You've jumped all over me for my original statement that the water temperature in Cozumel does not vary widely. It doesn't - the total range is only 6F or so. Sure, that's enough to feel, but it's not really a very wide temperature variation, especially compared with many other parts of the world.

Do you actually disagree with anything else I said in my first post? I said nothing about no need for thermal protection - you came up with that all on your own. You're the one who brought up increasingly bogus and extraneous arguments about minor fevers requiring hospitalization, recipes being ruined because the temperature was one or two degrees F too low or high, and hurricanes instantly forming when the thermometer ticks over to 80F.

You think the thread is about the need for thermal protection. I think it's about a question about current water temperatures in Cozumel. I still think my answer to the original question answers it. You apparently don't.

 

[marcus8]

Jeeez, how dismaying to see this baffoon (CZMDM) is actually trying to terrorize this forum as well as the others I've seen with his "been there, done it all, know everything" arrogance. Allow me to suggest you just let it go mstevens....some people just thrive on this stuff. Facts mean nothing and everything will continue to be misconstrued. My father used to say "never argue with an imbecile in public, observers may not recognize the difference between you". It took me a while on other forums to remember those words as it applies to this clown. It will just go on and on if you continue to feed it....