Upwelling Winds Along the Coast
Jack Barth and collaborators have published a recent journal article entitled “Widespread and increasing near-bottom hypoxia in the coastal ocean off the United State Pacific Northwest”. This article shows that ocean oxygen concentrations have tended to decline over the historical record, with the summer of 2021 in particular featuring large areas with values low enough to be harmful to many marine animals.
Read moreCool Waters off the Coast of the PNW and in the Puget Sound
We have enjoyed a cool spring in WA state and perhaps it is no surprise that regional ocean temperatures are also on the cool side. A sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly map for a 7- day period near the end of May 2022 (Figure 1) shows negative anomalies off the coast of the Pacific NW, and in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (more about the latter below).
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Real-time Monitoring of the Climatic and Oceanic Forcing of the Waters of Puget Sound
Under the auspices of the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program (PSEMP), with the support of the Puget Sound Partnership (PSP), a real-time system named the “Puget Sound Metrics Dashboard” has been developed to keep track of leading climatic and oceanic factors impacting Puget Sound’s water properties.
Read moreA Tale of Two Sea Surface Temperatures
There is a strong indication that at least moderate, and possibly strong, La Niña conditions will be present during the upcoming winter of 2020-21. Many readers of this newsletter know of the implications for WA state, namely improved odds of seasonal mean weather on the wet and cool side and healthy snow totals in the mountains at the end of winter.
Read moreOcean Weather Ship Papa: A Precipitation Time-Series
Ocean Weather Ship (OWS) Papa (P) at 50°North, 145°West was occupied almost continuously from December 1949 to August 1981 by the Canadian Weathership Program (Figure 1). These ships collected high-quality meteorological and oceanographic data that represent valuable time series for a remote location in the Northeast Pacific Ocean.
Read moreThe Return of Warm Water to the NE Pacific
The intense marine heat wave (MHW) of 2014-16 in the NE Pacific, aka the “Blob”, received a great deal of attention and deservedly so. When relatively warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs) emerged in the Gulf of Alaska in late summer/early fall 2018, both those monitoring the North Pacific atmosphere ocean climate system, and the media, began speculating whether a new MHW might be developing.
Read moreHigh Mortality of Cassin’s Auklets in the Pacific NW during the Winter of 2014-15
The waters off the coast of the Pacific Northwest have been unusually warm during the last couple of years, and this has had widespread and major impacts on the marine ecosystem.
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The Blob: Warm Water off the Coast of the PNW and What it May Mean for Our Summer Weather
The Pacific Northwest experienced a period of seasonally quiet and dry weather from October 2013 into February 2014. This period also featured anomalously weak cooling of the upper ocean off our coast for the time of year.
Read moreJISAO’s Seasonal Coastal Ocean Prediction of the Ecosystem (J-SCOPE)
A coastal ocean prediction system, named J-SCOPE, has been recently developed for the coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest. J-SCOPE has been designed to provide quantitative forecasts of physical, chemical and biological ocean properties on time horizons of up to 9 months.
Read moreEarly Fall Storms in the PNW and their Connection to Western North Pacific Typhoons
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Columbus Day storm, by many measures the strongest extratropical storm to hit the lower 48 states in the past century. The Columbus Day storm formed out of the remnants of Typhoon Freda.
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