Description The three "blobs" of warm water can be seen off the North American coast, ranging from Alaska to Mexico, seen in this graphic dated 1 September 2014. Initially the Blob was reported as being wide and deep. It later expanded and reached a size of long, wide, and deep, in the month of June 2014 when the term "The Blob" was coined. The Blob now hugs the coast of North America from Mexico to Alaska and beyond, stretching more than , and has formed three distinct patches: the first, off the coast of Canada, Washington, Oregon, and northern California, a region known to oceanographers as the Coastal Upwelling Domain; the second in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska; and the third and smallest off the coast of southern California and Mexico. Cause The immediate cause of the phenomenon was the lower than normal rates of heat loss from the sea to the atmosphere, compounded with lower than usual water circulation resulting in a static upper layer of water. Both of these are attributed to a static high pressure region in the atmosphere, termed the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, which has existed since spring 2014. The lack of air movement impacts the wind-forced currents and the wind-generated stirring of surface waters. These in turn have influenced the weather in the American Pacific Northwest from the winter of 2013–2014 onwards and may have been associated with the unusually hot summer experienced in the continental American Pacific Northwest in 2014.
Description The three "blobs" of warm water can be seen off the North American coast, ranging from Alaska to Mexico, seen in this graphic dated 1 September 2014. Initially the Blob was reported as being wide and deep. It later expanded and reached a size of long, wide, and deep, in the month of June 2014 when the term "The Blob" was coined. The Blob now hugged the coast of North America from Mexico to Alaska and beyond, stretching more than , and formed three distinct patches: the first, off the coast of Canada, Washington, Oregon, and northern California, a region known to oceanographers as the Coastal Upwelling Domain; the second in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska; and the third and smallest off the coast of southern California and Mexico. Cause The immediate cause of the phenomenon was the lower than normal rates of heat loss from the sea to the atmosphere, compounded with lower than usual water circulation resulting in a static upper layer of water. Both of these are attributed to a static high pressure region in the atmosphere, termed the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, which was formed in the spring of 2014. The lack of air movement impacts the wind-forced currents and the wind-generated stirring of surface waters. These in turn have influenced the weather in the American Pacific Northwest from the winter of 2013–2014 onwards and may have been associated with the unusually hot summer experienced in the continental American Pacific Northwest in 2014.
R
hugs
hugged
D
has
R
has existed since spring
was formed in the spring of