In the past month land temperatures to USA in the past 132 years.

Also, the world’s oceans returned to their warmest measured peak (first obtained in 2024). They have since relaxed a little. This is shown in the “World Sea Surface temperature” (climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/)

Bob McDavitt

MetBob. Bob McDavitt is the weather guru that uses //etBoB to provide meteorological information for cruising sailors, primarily for those in the South Pacific.

The oceans now store over 90% of the excess heat trapped in the Earth’s climate system by greenhouse gases.

Looking at today’s sea surface temperature anomaly map shows several interesting points of interest:

  1. We still have warmer than normal seas in the Tasman Sea and to the NE of New Zealand. These act as sources of extra evaporation, so that any low-pressure systems on the weather map crossing those areas are expected to bring more-than-normal rain to New Zealand during the next few months.
  2. There is a recent cool patch just to southwest of Fiji: this is left over from VAIANU which stirred the sea surface in this area so much it mixed with cooler deeper water.
  3. There is a cool patch off to the NW of Australia. This is called a “positive IOD” or Indian Ocean Dipole … this pattern typically brings reduced rainfall and increased heatwaves to Australia, and higher rainfall to East Africa.
  4. There is a cool patch over the Marquesas: this is the leftovers of the recent La Nina.
  5. There is the beginnings of a warm patch over Galapagos. This heralds the start of a new El Nino.
  6. There is a cool patch in the equatorial North Atlantic. This is taken to be an indicator to fewer hurricanes for North America in their upcoming Cyclone Season (June to November).

There are further interesting indicators such as a cooler than normal Gulf stream off the east of North America and a warmer than normal Kuroshio current off to the NE of Japan.

When Ocean and Atmosphere team together, we can get a weather pattern than can be used reliably for planning. However, this teamwork varies, and it is true to sum it up as follows: “Weather is a mix of pattern and chaos”.

Bob McDavitt