Is it still too cold to swim?

Find the answer in your tolerance level.

“It depends on your definition of ‘too cold,’” said Beth Cutter, as she and her family headed back down the ramp at Gainesville Marina on Sunday for another go at the water.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Cutters took their first plunge in Lake Lanier’s water for the year. The most recent information for the water temperature at Lake Lanier — measured by the National Weather Service — put the surface water temperature slightly below 60 degrees.

Two days before, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers measured the temperature at 61 degrees.

“You cannot stay in long, but it’s not terrible,” she said.

If the Cutters could tolerate the water, it’s likely to be hospitable for swimmers today as outside temperatures climb to 86 degrees and warm the lake even further, said Laura Belanger, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.

In the five years the Cutter family has been boating on Lanier, Beth Cutter said it was the first time they’d found the waters hospitable for a swim in April.

“Never,” does the Cutter family swim in the lake this early in the year, Cutter said. “This is the first time ever.”
Usually, the water isn’t warm enough until mid-May, she said.

The early swim is due in part to a warmer-than-normal spring.

Today’s expected high is about 20 degrees above the average for this time of year in Gainesville.

But Belanger says today will be a peak for the rest of the week.

Nearly every day this week, there are chances for afternoon showers and thunderstorms, with a bigger system of rain expected to move through the area on Wednesday and Thursday, Belanger said.

“That little bit of activity will allow our temperatures to drop a little,” said Belanger.

On Thursday, highs are expected to be in the mid-70s, a temperature that likely will last through the weekend.

They might make it harder to swim, but the forecasted temperatures are still warmer than normal.

“Even if we make it into the 70s for midweek, we’d still be above normal,” Belanger said.