I have gotten several worried emails from readers this week, asking about the health of the BLOB--an area of warmer-than-normal water off our coast.
Unfortunately, I have some sad news: the BLOB is weakening rapidly. It may not have long to live.
Let's go back a month, to September 17.
The map below shows the difference in the sea surface temperature from normal. A big area of warmer-than-normal temperatures offshore of the West Coast.
The BLOB LIVES.
One month later (yesterday), the story is very different, with a very weakened BLOB. Hardly any reds just offshore and even some blues---which indicated cooler than normal temperatures.
Below is the change in sea surface temperature for the past week, with blues indicating substantial cooling. The BLOB's days are numbered.
Storms like the one over the Gulf of Alaska as I write this (see below).
A storm that will rev up and produce strong winds (green and blue colors) over the Pacific (see wind gust forecast tomorrow around 5 PM). Winds that will mix the upper ocean and produce rapid surface cooling.
At this point in time, with a rapidly weakening blob, there is little reason to expect warmer-than-normal waters to our west at the start of winter.
______________________
Enjoy the great outdoors with Play Tennis Seattle. Find tennis partners, tennis coaches, tennis lesson and classes, and join the Seattle tennis community.
So what does it mean? Snow? Cold and wintry November /December?
ReplyDeleteIt means the Russian's are offshore with their subs heating the water
DeleteCorrect. The Russians also operate smaller subs in Lake Washington.
DeleteSeems the blob didn't exist earlier in the summer, right? I don't recall any mentioning of it until perhaps last month when it came up. Glad it's mostly all gone now. Definitely fall like.
ReplyDeleteLeaves are falling, and days are getting cloudier and now wetter. Glad I got the flannels on the bed already.
I recall back in 2019, the blob began much earlier in the summer, which amounted to warmer than normal overnight lows while during the daytime, they were not over normal, but add in humidity higher than usual for much of the summer.
Ciddyguy,
DeleteBy any chance, do you remember what the weather was like in the months after the blob was gone? I'm thinking fall 2019 and winter 2020, back before COVID took hold. Nothing memorable, good or bad, is coming to mind on the weather front.
Seemingly, some people are hanging on to the blob? https://www.timescolonist.com/islander/the-blob-is-back-in-the-northern-pacific-ocean-what-does-that-mean-for-bc-11404192
ReplyDelete