CONTACT:  Patricia Viets                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                           5/19/97

Before you surf the waves at the beach this summer, surf the World Wide Web to find out just how warm or cold the ocean water might be.

Average water temperatures for the country's beaches are now on line, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today. NOAA's National Oceanographic Data Center in Silver Spring, Md., has placed the temperatures on line to provide useful information for planning beach activities such as swimming, fishing or surfing.

Water temperatures are given for beaches along the Atlantic Coast from Eastport, Maine, to Key West, Fla.; along the Gulf Coast from Key West to South Padre Island, Texas; and along the Pacific Coast from Seattle, Wash., to Scripps Pier, Calif. Data for Puerto Rico, Bermuda and parts of Mexico are also included.

The water temperatures presented in NODC's Water Temperature Guide to Beaches in the United States are climatological averages based on observations from NOAA's tide stations and data buoys. These average water temperatures were computed from long-period records ranging from several years to several decades, depending on how long observations had been taken at a given station.

"Although ocean conditions vary from year to year, water temperatures are less variable than air temperatures, so these averages can provide useful information for planning beach activities," said Henry Frey, director of the data center.

The data can be found on the World Wide Web at: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/NODC-WNew/wtg.shtml

NODC's holdings include data sets on ocean currents, sea level, ocean winds and waves, ocean pollutants, marine biological data, and satellite data on sea surface temperatures. NODC also conducts ongoing oceanographic data exchange with numerous other countries including Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, the People's Republic of China, Peru, Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

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