The blob is caused by a persistent high-pressure ridge that set up off the West Coast during the winter of 2013-14. It then reformed inland over western North America this past winter.
Source/Credit: USA Today
By Doyle Rice | April 20, 2015
How 'the blob' may have caused USA's weird weather, scientists may have already figured it out.
A strange, persistent "blob" of very warm water off the U.S. West Coast is now linked to the recent winters that brought extreme heat and drought to the West, and record snow and cold to much of the East, according to two studies.
"In the fall of 2013 and early 2014, we started to notice a big, almost circular mass of water that just didn't cool off as much as it usually did. So by spring of 2014, it was warmer than we had ever seen it for that time of year," said Nick Bond, a University of Washington climate scientist and lead author of one of the studies.
At one point, the blob of ocean water was 2 to 7 degrees above average and about 1,000 miles across and 300 feet deep. Since then, though, "the pattern has evolved to be more like a wide strip along the coast," Bond said.
The two studies were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.
The blob may have had some influence on the severe drought in the West, Bond said. As air passes over warmer water and reaches the coast, it produces more rain and less snow in the mountains. The low snowpack results in reduced summer water supplies for California, Oregon and Washington.
Bond said this strip of warm water is expected to remain through the end of the year.
The blob is caused by a persistent high-pressure ridge that set up off the West Coast during the winter of 2013-14. It then reformed inland over western North America this past winter, he said.
A high-pressure ridge features sinking air, which prevents clouds from forming and precipitation from falling.
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