Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies of the Patch of Warmer-Than-Normal Waters in the North Atlantic



Guest essay by Bob Tisdale

With Hurricane/Tropical Storm Florence approaching the continental United States, the patch of warmer-than-normal waters at mid-latitudes of the North Atlantic (see Figure 1) is sure to generate some nonsensical statements about human-induced global warming-climate change from the mainstream media and alarmists.

Figure 1

Therefore, it seems like an appropriate time to present the long-term sea surface temperature data for that patch of warmer-than-normal waters. Figure 2 is a time-series graph of the sea surface temperature anomalies for the coordinates of 35N-50N, 80W-40W, which captures those warmer-than-normal waters. For the dataset, I’m presenting NOAA’s much-adjusted ERSST.v5 sea surface temperature dataset. Like always, I’ve downloaded it through the KNMI Climate Explorer.

Figure 2

As we can see, the August 2018 sea surface temperature anomalies for August 2018 were +1.23 deg C for that region. We can also see that that value has been met or exceeded as far back as the 1860s, 1930s and 1950s, so it could be said that there’s nothing really unusual about the temperatures of that patch of warmer-than-normal waters in the North Atlantic because it’s happened before. And looking at the long-term cycles, one might assume they have to do with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (See the NOAA AOML FAQ webpage here for more info on the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation.)

Hope this post helps you combat the nonsense.

As soon as NOAA’s satellite-enhanced sea surface temperature data for August 2018 are available, I’ll be publishing a post about the sea surface temperature anomalies for the hurricane formation regions. I suspect it will be available sometime tomorrow or Tuesday, which should be in advance of Florence making landfall, assuming she elects to pay a visit to the U.S.

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Cheers

Bob

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