Hi everyone! Recently, whenever I've gone on wunderground.com and looked at their global SST map, I noticed a growing pool of warm waters off the NWT coast near the Mackenzie River delta. I thought for sure it was an error on the map, because it showed water temperatures near 16˚C. So I dug around a little, and found that the ocean waters off the coast were approaching 20˚C!! That's about 6˚C higher than where I live, in Yarmouth, NS.
This seemed very high to me, and sure enough, some of the waters that were near 10-14˚C were usually still covered in ice this time of year, leading to SST anomalies of over 15˚C from what I can tell from the bunched up lines on the map below:
Average Ice Extent Map.
Arctic SST Anomalies.
Temperatures in Tuktoyaktuk, which is on the shore near the Mackenzie River delta, have only been about 4-5˚C above average for the past few months, so it doesn't seem like air temperatures are the main cause of the heating, and likewise the Mackenzie River itself is not as warm as the waters off the coast. So I really have no idea why the waters are so warm, but something interesting I felt like pointing out to everyone on the boards here. If any mets have clues or theories as to why the waters are so warm, I'd love to hear them!
Warm Waters off NWT Coast
Moderator: S2k Moderators
Forum rules
The posts in this forum are NOT official forecast and should not be used as such. They are just the opinion of the poster and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. They are NOT endorsed by any professional institution or STORM2K.
- Cainer
- Tropical Storm
- Posts: 188
- Age: 33
- Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 3:26 pm
- Location: Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
Warm Waters off NWT Coast
0 likes
-
- Tropical Storm
- Posts: 109
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2011 7:31 am
- Location: Croatia (Southeast Europe)
Re: Warm Waters off NWT Coast
This site says that sea surface temperature at Tuktoyaktuk are 7 degrees Celsius.
0 likes
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 23 guests