I attempted to swim at the Baltic coast outside the Museum of Coastal Defence (5 km from the tip) after my orienteering race, but the sea was so cold that I freaked out after half an hour. When I got in I felt pain because of the cold and it felt like a winter swim. My watch recorded an average of 11°C with 9°C the lowest, which shouldn’t be possible in this season. There also aren’t any glacier outflow nearby as well. Yesterday it was still a lovely 21°C in the sea (nearer the tip but still on the Baltic coast), and it is impossible for the sea to drop such a large temperature overnight.

Can anyone local explain what happened?

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1f0wglc

Posted by miklcct

8 Comments

  1. Vip_year_doll_eye on

    What do you mean “today?” This is par for the course. If you don’t like it, you can go straight to Hel…oh wait.

  2. Pale-Boysenberry1719 on

    That’s a big difference, but it’s actually quite common for water temperature to vary on small distances in baltic sea due to currents, wavebreakers, etc. The weather is also much worse than yesterday so I’m gonna guess it’s just that + maybe some measuring mistake

  3. AmonGusSus2137 on

    You’re a tourist, aren’t you? Poles know that the sea is always cold here. The weather is also not always ideal.

  4. It’s normal for Baltic to get colder during the 2nd half of August. If I go to the southern Baltic coast after 20th of August, I’m not even going to try to go into the water, because I know it will be cold.

    Source: I’m West Pomeranian.