Update On SSTA Regions In The North Atlantic Basin

The North Atlantic regional SSTA vary widely. Off the U.S. East Coast waters have warmed to +0.66C, a change of +0.40C during the past 30 days (Fig. 1). In the main development region (MDR) for North Atlantic hurricanes located in-between the Caribbean Sea and northwest coast of Africa the SSTA is marginally warm (+0.30C) and while warmer than 2-4 weeks ago, the past week has shown slight cooling (Fig. 2). In the Gulf of Mexico, the basin is near normal and has cooled 0.24C during the past 30 days (Fig. 3).

Fig. 1-3: Regions of the North Atlantic basin SSTA and recent trend.