Sea temperature: 11.4° and climbing
The spring warm-up is underway. What the next few weeks mean for plunge times, and why April cold is the best cold.
The buoy off the East Pier read 11.4° this morning — up almost a full degree on last week. The spring warm-up is properly underway, and you can feel it in the water: the first ten seconds still bite, but the bite lets go sooner.
What does that mean in practice? Plunge times stretch. Swimmers who were managing thirty seconds in March are doing two and three minutes now, and the walk back up the steps feels like a stroll rather than an escape.
Our advice: don't wait for "warm". The water between now and midsummer is the sweet spot — cold enough to do its work, kind enough to let you stay in it. April cold is the best cold; June cold is a close second.