PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Water temperatures this week have been unusually warm down the shore.  Will they last through the unofficial start of summer this Memorial Day weekend?

Erik Cordez, assistant professor of biology at Temple university says water temperatures at the Jersey shore have been as much as 12 degrees above normal for this time of year.

So what influences water temperatures?  He says, believe it or not, wind is the biggest factor.

“The temperatures at the surface are very warm obviously, but if you are blowing some of that water off shore, the deeper water comes up to the surface to replace it and that deep water is typically very cold and the water temperatures can change almost in a matter of hours if the wind shifts direction,” Cordez says.

But Cordez says if the wind shifts to another direction, it could bring with it the warm waters from the Gulf Stream.

“Sometimes very warm cores of water spin off of that and come onshore and then we can get very warm water up into the 70′s even in late May, early June.”

And while the water this weekend is expected to be a little warmer than usual, he says the ocan will be significantly cooler than what it has been this past week.

Reported by Hadas Kuznits, KYW Newsradio 1060