By Paul Yeager, author of Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities
There is a growing consensus that the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will be active, and one of the reasons for concern is the warm weather in the tropical Atlantic.
Water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, however, have remained cool through the spring–one of the reasons that the tornado season was off to a slow start. That’s changed dramatically during just the past month; temperatures have taken a serious jump–and it has nothing to do with the fact that the Gulf of Mexico has been occasionally lit on fire recently because of the oil spill!
Now that the Gulf is warming, there is even more reason for concern for the hurricane season.
Here is a map, from Remote Sensing Services, showing water temperatures on April 10:
April 2010 sea surface temperatures in Gulf of Mexico
Here’s a map for today, and it’s easy to see how much the water has warmed in just the past month:
Sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico on May 10, 2010
