Diamond Shoals Lightship (Figure 16, Table 16) 



Because the temperature regime at Diamond Shoals changes so 

 rapidly and so radically, the temperature profile is drawn in five 

 degree isotherms rather than in the one degree isotherms of the other 

 figrues. 



From January through April temperature fluctuated around the 

 mean in a manner characteristic of this station and showed a direct 

 relationship between rising and falling values of temperature and 

 salinity. During the summer months temperature was more steady 

 than during previous years and was uniformly above the mean. 

 Equally high salinities during the same period show that Gulf Stream 

 water dominated the area of the shoals during the summer. In the 

 autumn, temperatures and salinities again fluctuated widely as 

 Virginian coastal water at times pushed down over the shoals. The 

 first such marked intrusion began on September 17th and persisted 

 throughout the month. Bumpus (19 60) reported that within the period 

 September 19th to October 11th ten drift bottles launched during the 

 spring and summer off southern New England came ashore at points 

 between New Jersey and North Carolina, four of them rounding Cape 

 Hatteras. Prior to this no bottles launched in 1959 off New England 

 had traveled further west or south than Long Island. This excursion 

 of coastal water is associated with a northeasterly wind regime. 



84 



