Scientist Now Thinking that California Drought Might be Caused by Ocean Blob

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

Perhaps, but based on my reading the Washington papers it appears that the warming may be taking place well below where the "trigger" would be impacted by the warming surface water. I don't know what to think about this, but I'd be open minded that perhaps the "cause and effect" for this may be quite a bit different than what has been understood, or assumed, to this point.

Maybe something is happening at the ocean floor that is having more of an impact on ocean temperatures than we have realized.

Yes, could be. That would be intriguing. Could be some tectonic activity. Watch NOAA for reports.

[Matadora]

Probably has a lot do with the Madden-Julian Oscillation Indices (MJO) reaching its highest level ever in February. It contributed to the weak El Nino finally forming and getting stronger. The warmer Pacific waters are helping the Texas drought and will eventually help California once the El Nino reaches moderate levels come Summer.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by Matadora

Probably has a lot do with the Madden-Julian Oscillation Indices (MJO) reaching its highest level ever in February. It contributed to the weak El Nino finally forming and getting stronger. The warmer Pacific waters are helping the Texas drought and will eventually help California once the El Nino reaches moderate levels come Summer.

MJO and ENSO interactions with PDO can be unpredictable.

Generally PDO has been in negative territory for going on 10 years now (yeah I know the index went positive a few months ago, but overall, PDO is negative mode).

This may be analogous to the dual 1976-77, 1977-78 ENSO positives. The first one didn't do diddly to the 1974 - 1977 bad drought (the one all the newbs weren't here for, and that lack of experience makes them really freak about the current one). The second one broke it.

One can hope.

But then again, we could be having a mega drought like the Pre-Colombian ones that are apparent in the paleo-climate record.

[Matadora]

The Pacific waters have been cooler the last 5 years and turning warmer now. They are suppose to peak out in the Fall/Winter time frame. Usually a moderate to strong El Nino brings California a lot of rain so keep your fingers crossed that this pattern continues to help the California drought. It's only a weak El Nino now, but they just upped the chances to 70% the other day that it goes strong.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by Matadora

The Pacific waters have been cooler the last 5 years and turning warmer now. They are suppose to peak out in the Fall/Winter time frame. Usually a moderate to strong El Nino brings California a lot of rain so keep your fingers crossed that this pattern continues to help the California drought. It's only a weak El Nino now, but they just upped the chances to 70% the other day that it goes strong.

It would be nice.

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

Scientist have found a large "heat blob" in the Pacific, apparently causing the California drought. Though not well explained in this article, they state it is temporary not associated with global warming:

The strange anomaly is a patch of unusually warm water lurking along the West Coast of the United States and it may be responsible for all sorts of recent weird weather. Researchers believe that it is behind the Californian droughts and even extreme cold weather on the Eastern coast of US...However, the researchers have added that the ‘blob’ wasn’t caused by global warming.


Weird Anomaly Called

Are you aware that man-made CO2 is trapping 250,000,000 Joules of extra energy in the climate system every second? Why would you claim that the blob had nothing to do with AGW? A cursory review of articles on the "blob" frames it as a sort of secondary El Nino; hardly something a critical thinker would dismiss as unrelated to AGW. It was first noticed in 2014, which was the warmest year on record.

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by CarawayDJ

Can't be true because all weather is caused by global warming nowadays. Too little snow, too much snow, record high temps, record low temps, too many hurricanes, no hurricanes, any hurricane, all tornadoes, flooding, droughts, you name it

Not funny, if the implication is that too many things are blamed on AGW, therefore nothing should be blamed on it "cuz we're tired of hearing about it!" Seriously, a lot of people think evidence ceases to matter simply because it's repeated too much. It's repeated often because they keep ignoring it!

I'm also weary of the oily, pathological liars who keep saying "I'm not a scientist" when asked about their stance on global warming. That's the latest soft-denial ruse from the party of willful ignorance that also thinks oil-shale debunks Peak Oil and it's fine to sit around idling your engine while you talk on the phone or experience the slightest discomfort.

An intelligent species would recognize that oil is A) finite, B) getting scarcer every second and C) far too useful for society to squander based on temporary price drops. Even if one doesn't take AGW seriously, there's no moral or pragmatic excuse to waste oil.