PIRATA (Pilot research moored array in tropical Atlantic)

[Dionne]

You can access these buoys via NDBC. The SST's out there seem to be low......anywhere from 78.4-82.4F. Is this information reliable?

Isn't this a bit low for tropical storm growth?

[Chris_in_Tampa]

I have read things that say you need SSTs around 78 to 80F for a tropical cyclone to form. NOAA FAQ says 80F:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/A16.html

However, that does not mean they cannot form in waters cooler than that, including hurricanes.

Hurricane Vince in 2005, a year full of anomalies, was an oddball:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Vince

As for the temperatures you point out from the mid Atlantic buoys, assuming it is still reporting temperatures, I see no reason to consider them unreliable. The directly measured temperatures seem to be in line with satellite derived temperatures.

13008 is around 15N. That is getting up there in latitude. The reason you don't see storms earlier in the season in the mid Atlantic is due to things like more dust and shear, but SSTs are important too. The Gulf and Carib warm up much faster and get much hotter than the wide open Atlantic.

I like this site because it shows you the depth of warm water in addition to the TCHP and SST:
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/cyclone/data/at.html

If you really wanted to see how they compare to previous years, you can search the historical data:
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/disdel/disdel-pir.html

An easier method would be to just look at the SST anomaly imagery at one of the sites below:

http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/climo.html

https://128.160.23.54/products/K10/HPCdifsc.gif
Main: https://www.navo.navy.mil/ops.htm

https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/products/NCO ... nomaly.gif
Main: https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/PUBLIC/NCODA/ncoda.html

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/tafb/atl_anom.gif
Main: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsst.shtml

Some regions of the Atlantic have been below normal as opposed to the mostly above average areas in the Gulf and Carib.