Unusual warm ocean conditions off California, West Coast bringing odd species
Hawaiian ono swimming off the California coast? Giant sunfish in Alaska? A sea turtle usually at home off the Galapagos Islands floating near San Francisco?Rare changes in wind patterns this fall have caused the Pacific Ocean off California and the West Coast to warm to historic levels, drawing in a bizarre menagerie of warm-water species. The mysterious phenomena are surprising fishermen and giving marine biologists an aquatic Christmas in November.
Temperatures off the California coast are currently 5 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than historic averages for this time of year -- among the warmest autumn conditions of any time in the past 30 years.
"It's not bathtub temperature," said Nate Mantua, a research scientist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Santa Cruz, "but it is swimmable on a sunny day."
In mid-October, it was 65 degrees off the Farallon Islands and in Monterey Bay, and 69 degrees off Point Conception near Santa Barbara. In most years, water temperatures in those areas would be in the high 50s or low 60s.
The last time the ocean off California was this warm was in 1983 and 1997, both strong El Niño years that brought drenching winter rains to the West Coast.
But El Niño isn't driving this year's warm-water spike, which began in mid-July, experts say. Nor is climate change.
What's happening is winds that normally blow from the north, trapping warm water closer to the equator, have slackened since the summer. That's allowed the warm water to move north.As the Washington Post put it on Nov. 4:
In most years, the winds also help push ocean surface waters, churning up cold water from down below. That process, called upwelling, isn't happening as much this year.
"If the wind doesn't blow, there's no cooling of the water," Mantua said. "It's like the refrigerator fails. The local water warms up from the sun, and is not cooling off."...MORE
...Capital Weather Gang’s Matt Rogers, who specializes in long-range forecasting, said the warm waters off the West Coast don’t necessarily establish the pattern, but assist in holding it in place. “It’s not a pattern driver, but once you get a ridge in the West, [the warm water] it helps it stay there longer than it normally would,” he said.Previously:
Major shifts in the atmospheric flow can certainly disrupt this pattern, Rogers said, but “if you have the pattern in the front door of winter, it’s more likely you’ll keep it there.” For this reason, Rogers favors a continuation of the drought in the West this winter, and cold, inclement weather in the East. The warm Pacific waters may, however, facilitate some drought relief in Southern California by enhancing the tropical moisture feed from Pacific into the southern U.S., Rogers said.
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