How do the excessively warm sea surface conditions of 2013-16 compare to the past? (1926)

Since mid-2013 Alaska has been excessively warm, and this has been most emphatically the case over the western Gulf of Alaska, Alaska Peninsula and the Bering Sea regions. But how does this compare to the past? For the first half of the 20th century, 1926 stands out as the warmest calendar year in Alaska.  This is apparent when looking at the available station data as … Continue reading How do the excessively warm sea surface conditions of 2013-16 compare to the past? (1926)

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Rick Thoman: 2016 is globally the 2nd warmest October on record

This image comes from Richard James at Prescient Weather. It shows the  standardized sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies for October 2016. According to Brian Brettschneider’s rankings, this is globally the second warmest October (behind only last year). Given that last year we had a full-blown El Nino underway and this year, we have a weak La Nina (Aug-Sep-Oct ONI Index at -0.7), the fact that … Continue reading Rick Thoman: 2016 is globally the 2nd warmest October on record

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How does the 1977 climate event and related California drought of that period compare to the “Blob” event from 2013?

I asked Nate Mantua of NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center to comment on the 1977 California Drought event in relation to the more recent “Blob” event of 2013. “The 1977 drought is very well known in the Pacific climate research community, and in the water resources world in CA-OR-WA because it was so extreme. Like our recent west coast drought, the proximate cause was a remarkably … Continue reading How does the 1977 climate event and related California drought of that period compare to the “Blob” event from 2013?

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Subsurface Conditions

Those who follow North Pacific temperature patterns closely are well aware that the past summer brought a dramatic expansion of above-normal temperatures at the ocean surface across the northern North Pacific Ocean, reversing the cold anomalies that developed last winter during the strong El Niño episode. The two maps below illustrate the change, based on OIv2 SST data. The late winter pattern was very characteristic … Continue reading Subsurface Conditions

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Pacific Anomalies Workshop II Report Is Published and Available to the Public

The Pacific Anomalies Workshop II, which was held in Seattle, Washington in January 2016 has a published report summarizing the current understanding of the “Blob” and its impact on the marine ecosystem along the US Pacific coastline, from Alaska to the Baja Peninsula. This report is available for download or viewing online to the public. PAWS II Workshop Report from January 2016   Presentations and video … Continue reading Pacific Anomalies Workshop II Report Is Published and Available to the Public

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“There’s more than one way to feed a phytoplankton bloom in the Gulf of Alaska”

This is not really directly related to the Blob; however, it is likely these kinds of phenomena will vary from the norm during years experiencing events like warm pools similar to the Blob. Having a series of imagery throughout time will prove highly valuable at helping assess large-scale impacts on the oceanography of regions during anomalous years. From NASA’s Earth Observatory website, check out this story on … Continue reading “There’s more than one way to feed a phytoplankton bloom in the Gulf of Alaska”

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