This story summarizes some of the impacts of the temperature anomalies in the Pacific Ocean, including the BLOB, published in The New York Times Science section.
About the featured image:
PDO global pattern. The PDO is the leading EOF[1] of monthly sea surface temperature anomalies over the North Pacific after the global mean sea surface temperature anomaly is removed. The units are °C per standard deviation of the pdo index.
Ref: http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/cdeser/Docs/deser.sstvariability.annrevmarsci10.pdf
Data source, HadISST (1880-2010):http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadisst/data/download.html
Alaska “Blob” Tracker 