Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures and Anomalies

[cycloneye]

This thread is all about how are the waters in the Atlantic basin doing on a daily basis.However,lets remember that this is only one of the factors that lead to how a hurricane season will be in terms of activity.There are other important factors but the sst and anomalies are one of the most important ones.





















http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsst.shtml



http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/cyclone/data/at.html



http://www.getaforecast.com/weatherpix-seatemp.htm

[cycloneye]

Here are a couple of the best known graphics of sst,s around.These also update every day.If any member has other graphics,dont hesitate to post them here.

[JonathanBelles]

SST's are in the mid-upper 50's here. Not to often that you get SST's near Tampa Bay that cold.

[cycloneye]

Its early in the year,but lets follow those cooler waters just off Africa to see if they will last for many months,or it will be only a few weeks having those cooler anomalies.

[cycloneye]

Daily Loop of sst,s in Atlantic.



Gulf of Mexico sst,s daily loop.



Caribbean Sea sst,s daily loop.



You can find the above loops and much more from other basins at link below:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/cyclone/data/at.html

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

Waters are very cold off the florida west coast...

[cycloneye]

Waters are very cold off the florida west coast...

Yes,in the mid 60,s.Lets see how much they warm this summer.

[gatorcane]

Reynold's loop of Atlantic SSTs shows a general cooling of SSTs across the entire North Atlantic with a gradually slowing rate of cooling towards the end of the loop.

That is telling me that the North Atlantic SSTs have reached a perigee and are likely not going down much more --- afterall it is nearly Feb. and we are about 6 weeks past the winter solstice. Over the next couple of months, SSTs should gradually start to rise with a more dramatic rise in March and April -- of course this is of no surprise at all but its neat to watch the graphic animate over time especially in Spring and fall...where rises and falls are more dramatic.

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT ... -loop.html

[gatorcane]

I don't know if anybody has noticed but the SSTs across a large chunk of the Atlantic basin (including the Mean Development Region or MDR) are trending a bit above normal so far. Farther north in the Northern Atlantic, temps are quite a bit above normal. We'll have to watch this trend as it could indicate an active Atlantic season.

[cycloneye]

Daily Loop of sst,s in Atlantic.



Gulf of Mexico sst,s daily loop.



Caribbean Sea sst,s daily loop.



You can find the above loops and much more from other basins at link below:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/cyclone/data/at.html

Very interesting to see the sudden cooldown in the Caribbean.I guess its because of the cold front that moved thru and strong high pressure gradient to the north causing the waters to cool.

[cycloneye]

2008



2009



You can see the difference between 2008 and 2009 at mid Febuary.2008 was warmer in the Eastern Atlantic and in parts of the Western Atlantic than in 2009 so far.For sure warming will take place in the comming months,but how fast it does so will be interesting to see.

[x-y-no]

Well that's interesting. The strong warm anomaly that had been there on the west African coast for the last couple of years is completely reversed. If that continues into the season I guess we can expect less early development.

[jinftl]

Cold fronts can have an impact in the short-term but once the cold fronts stop dropping down into the tropical atlantic....and that is in the not too distant future....there is no reason why temps won't quickly rise to typical values in a short amount of time. Not sure any implications can be drawn for the season ahead based on a cold front clearing the northern caribbean in february. Let's see what a month of low temps above 75 deg does to water temps in the area come april or may.

Watch how in 1 week the temps below 20C (68F) warm off the west coast of florida and temps rebound above 26C (78F) in the western caribbean...again, factor in the steady ramp up that temps will take in less than a month, and water temps will be plenty warm come June 1.

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dataphod1/work/HHP/NEW/atsst.gif

[cycloneye]

[jinftl]

Be interested to know if the area around loop current is warmer than normal given the time of year....that may be of most interest and significance overall than short-term cooling caused by fronts or rain in the tropical atlantic. Something to keep an eye on in the current months to see if the heat 'bubble' persists around 25N/85W.

[gatorcane]

Much of the Northern Atlantic is running above normal with about 3 months and 10 days until the start of the season. Of particular interest are the warm waters ESE of the leewards and into waters just north of the ITCZ mean position for the primary months of hurrican season. That is where many of storms tend to get going and where we see a fairly higher frequency of those storms making it more westward rather than recurving.

These trends do concern me, however, there are still several months left for the situation to perhaps go back to normal or even below normal:

[jinftl]

Sea surface temps on the rise across the Caribbean....

[Ed Mahmoud]

2008



2009



You can see the difference between 2008 and 2009 at mid Febuary.2008 was warmer in the Eastern Atlantic and in parts of the Western Atlantic than in 2009 so far.For sure warming will take place in the comming months,but how fast it does so will be interesting to see.

The Pacific is more interesting in that image than the Atlantic- much below temps replaced by near normal.


Playing with the URLs




2009

[jinftl]

Gulf waters definitely starting the climb up in temperature during this past week...

[JonathanBelles]

SST's have risen 8-9 degrees in a little more than a week here.