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A rip tide, or riptide, is a strong offshore current that is caused by the tide pulling water through an inlet along a barrier beach, at a lagoon or inland marina where tide water flows steadily out to sea during ebb tide. It is a strong tidal flow of water within estuaries and other enclosed tidal areas. The riptides become the strongest where ...
In contrast to undertow, rip currents are responsible for the great majority of drownings close to beaches. When a swimmer enters a rip current, it starts to carry them offshore. The swimmer can exit the rip current by swimming at right angles to the flow, parallel to the shore, or by simply treading water or floating until the rip releases them.
Sea surface temperature (or ocean surface temperature) is the temperature of ocean water close to the surface. The exact meaning of surface varies in the literature and in practice. It is usually between 1 millimetre (0.04 in) and 20 metres (70 ft) below the sea surface.
A difference in water color: Sandy water flowing out beyond the waves can be a sign. ... Undertow vs Riptide. Rip currents: These are narrow channels of fast-moving water that flow away from shore.
Signs explaining how to escape from a rip current, posted at Mission Beach, San Diego, California As seen from above, this shows how a rip current works. Breaking waves cross a sand bar off the shore. The pushed-in water can most easily travel back out to sea through a gap in the sand bar.
The National Weather Service posts rip current risks on its websites around the coasts and has developed a computer model that can predict when conditions are favorable for their formation up to ...
A rip current is a powerful, narrow channel of water that flows away from the shore at surf beaches, ... says the NOAA. Swim out of the rip current, parallel to shore, then follow breaking waves ...
Deep water eventually gains heat and/or loses salinity in an exchange with the mixed ocean layer, and becomes less dense and rises towards the surface. Differences in temperature and salinity exist between ocean layers and between parts of the World Ocean, and together they drive the thermohaline circulation. [18]