Thanks to Bob Tisdale, we’ve covered the evolution, peak, and demise of the sea surface temperature phenomenon labeled as “The Blob” in the North Pacific for awhile now. According to Wikipedia:

The Blob is the name given to a large mass of relatively warm water in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of North America. It was first detected in late 2013 and continued to spread throughout 2014 and 2015.[1][2]

Sea surface temperature indicates the blob persists into 2016.[3] This warm water mass is unusual in ocean conditions and is considered to have a role in the formation of the unusual weather conditions felt in the Pacific Coast.

The Blob was first detected in the autumn of 2013 and the early months of 2014 by Nicholas Bond of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean of the University of Washington, and his colleagues, when a large circular body of sea-water did not cool as expected and remained much warmer than the average normal temperatures for that location and season.[5]

Bond, who is the State Climatologist for Washington, coined the term “The Blob”, with the term first appearing in an article in the monthly newsletter of the Office of the Washington State Climatologist for June 2014.[6]