the 'BLOB' off America's west coast - weather changing event...?

a reply to: Skadi_the_Evil_Elf

I know, right? It's been spring here since January, no real ski season to speak of this year.
It's been a while, but even living in the foothills of Mount Rainier (literally!) I can forsee water restrictions this summer... which is kinda rare for us.

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Glad you have a sense of humor. I only said that because it's a weather thread.

originally posted by: tallcool1
a reply to: Skadi_the_Evil_Elf

I know, right? It's been spring here since January, no real ski season to speak of this year.
It's been a while, but even living in the foothills of Mount Rainier (literally!) I can forsee water restrictions this summer... which is kinda rare for us.

If water restrictions are applied this year, it will likely be done on a local city/county basis, like they do with the burn bans. I think Eastern Washington might get hit first. But if this continues and future winters end up like this, it will end up a statewide thing.

Yeah. No snow. No skiing. The only good thing about this is a mild winter tends to be good for salmon stocks, though we won't see the benefits for another couple years.

On the 1st page, someone quoted an article from 1991 and it reminded me of something I read while in high school, maybe 92-93-94 thereabouts. That article talked about coastal fault zones leading up to massive earthquakes having fisherman report large areas of unusually warm water off the coast of those zones, and those reports going back a few hundred years. The article suggested increased magma chamber activity near the fault lines cause the high tectonic pressures that result in the massive earthquakes, but the ones offshore were the only notable signs by residents of the area because fisherman reported the concentration of warmer waters which they knew about because of fish location.

I'll have to look for that article but have no idea how to find it since I'm not sure what publication it was in, but I do remember my most read pubs back then were National Geographic, Popular Mechanics and USA Today so it is bound to be in one of those pubs.

It's been very warm here on the south west coast of Canada. I almost put the AC on the other day. My cherry trees bloomed early and other plants not behaving as normal.

The Blob is a strange word to describe it, I wonder about magma chambers heating up as well.

a reply to: PurpleDog UK

I wouldn't say that they are linked-the Storms down under are not unexpected at this time of year but the intensity of these storms took quite a few people by surprise.

Every county (or country) has their own unique climate and that needs to be considered.

a reply to: PurpleDog UK

Good thread

Is Jellystone near there?.

originally posted by: boymonkey74
Is Jellystone near there?.

Long valley would be not that far but there are undersea volcanism in the area.

Scientists have discovered a cluster of underwater asphalt volcanoes rising from the sea floor just off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif.

Read more at: phys.org...

I doubt it is magmatic in origin as the water temperature appears to be surface / shallow water temp rather than deep ocean temp (bottom of ocean). Magmatic warming would tend to affect lower down.

Or perhaps it is magmatic but from somewhere else in the Pacific and these temperature readings are from where the water has circulated closer to the temperature (linked to conveyor currents). Undersea Tonga area is a vulcanologists wet dream so perhaps the blob is where these deep waters "pop up" closer to the surface?

Who knows......proper mystery at the moment so its good to be able to properly speculate!

I'm writing from AK and the fishing season has just begun. This is the second year in a row the fish are not coming in as they have in the past (40?) years. People have a hundred different ideas, some think Fukushima, some think of Climate Change, acidification. This blob sounds the most plausible (with Fukushima). The salmon that's coming in is too small, there's something in the water disturbing their growth, it seems.

a reply to: LaBaleine

Yeah, I have a lot of friends who depend in fishing season up there.

Here is another thread with some more information on the "blob"
www.abovetopsecret.com...

So, a large expanse of the Pacific Ocean off the western US coast has been warming for at least two years, and weather and ocean scientists are only just now beginning to realise the effects it has caused? My real concern is that they don't yet know why that area has warmed.

Is it not unusual for this sort of oceanic effect to remain in one place> Shouldn't the spin of the earth alone, eventually bring weather elements into play that move it around? How is it staying in one place and remaining warm. You would have thought the jet stream would have affected it, but instead, it has affected the direction of the Jet stream.

Is the ocean being heated from the ocean floor by newly-opened vents releasing heat from tectonic motion?