water temp in the Red Sea right now?

[tazgator]

I dove the Red Sea on the Moon Dancer out of Hurghada in the mid-90's and before information was readily available like this on the Internet... and I took a polartec, a shortie, and a 3mm and thought I had it covered, yet by mid-week I was feeling cold by the 3rd and 4th dive of the day... I obviously ended up layering as the week progressed and even wearing a hood and gloves... So my advise is at minimal take the 5mm... I was in my mid-30's and pretty hot blooded compared to now, and my core body temperature felt like it was dropping making diving 4 to 5 dives a day uncomfortable by day 4 & 5... I believe the liveaboards photographer/videographer a female wore a dry suit ....

 

[JDelage]

I suspect you're already gone but ... I used a 5mm Henderson H2 in mid-April last year and I was perfectly comfy. One of the dive guide had no suit, another one (petite woman) dove a dry suit...

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Just came back from there, and temp was almost always 82-83 deg F in the brothers/daedalus/reefs , which is around 28 deg C. 3mm was more than enough for me. Only time I hit anything cold was the wreck in big brother where there seem to be a thermal cline at around 45m.

 

[MB NZ]

Not sure where we're going, Lynne ... two dive sites I know we'll be doing are the Moeller and Thistlegorm.

I think I'll bring the 5mm ... I could probably get by with the 2/3, but I might be doing some long dives ... I'm bringing my sidemount rig.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

good choice. i have been to the red sea many times. people generally (i'm not suggesting this includes you) underestimate how cold you can feel after a week of repetitive diving even in warm water. i would add a neoprene vest and definitely a hood to the 5 mm suit, but i do feel the cold.

enjoy.

 

[decidedlyodd]

So we ended up doing more of the north--Abu Nahas, Strait of Tiran, Dahab, Thistlegorm/Rosalie Moeller, Brothers and Safaga. Conditions were pretty windy and a long crossing in rough seas to Daedalus or Elphinstone just wasn't in the cards. Water temperatures on my Petrel varied from 77F near Dahab up to 81/82 in Brothers. The thermocline at around 150ft on the Aida and Numidia on Big Brother was downright icy!

I ended up feeling cold by the end of almost every dive in my 3mm full suit. Wish I'd bought a 5mm or brought my drysuit but it was still an awesome trip.

 

[tazgator]

Yep, I dug up my dive log... turns out we went in April quite a while back, late 90's and in similar dive locations including the S.S. Thistlegorm we had generally had 69/70F water temp... and while I wore a brand new O'Neil 3mm full wet suit at time, I also quickly ended up breaking out and wearing a full polartec suit underneath, along with a 3mm shortie on top and a polartec hoodie... Tended to feel chilly the entire week, especially when you got hit with the thermocline you mentioned... It was tough to do a 3rd, 4th and 5th dive off the live-aboard once we got past mid week... :-/ That's why we recommended going with at minimal a 5mm full suit... Still great diving and photos and memories of a lifetime, but my poor ex had it tough with the overall conditions and that it was a bit chilly to do 4 to 5 dives a day...

Photo taken diving S.S. Thistlegorm