'Warm Blob' In Pacific Ocean Linked To Weird Weather
Tuesday, April 14, 2015 - 10:00
in Earth & Climate
The one common element in recent American weather has been its diversity. The West Coast has been drier than usual while the East Coast has had more snow. Fish are swimming into new waters and so hungry seals that don't follow them aare washing up on California beaches. A long-lived patch of warm water off the West Coast, about 1 to 4 degrees Celsius (2 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal, is part of what's wreaking much of this mayhem, according to two papers Geophysical Research Letters. No, that warm blob was not caused by climate change, though it has many of the same effects for West Coast weather. read more