Warm California Coastal Waters Not Necessarily El Niño Related - Golden Gate Weather Services

Warm California Coastal Waters Not Necessarily El Niño Related

Warm California Coastal Waters Not Necessarily El Niño Related

In recent days there have been numerous reports of warmer than normal water along the California coast as well as an abundance of sharks, red crabs and dead marine life washing ashore. And in too many reports there has been at least an implied linkage to El Niño. But the warmer than normal water associated with El Niño occurs in the tropical Pacific, about 2500 miles southwest of California. Historically, the waters along the northern and central California coast have been above normal during only about half (55%) of the El Niño events since 1950, and 64% of the times in the Southern California coastal waters. (See #7 at http://ggweather.com/enso/enso_myths.htm )

It should also be noted that California coast waters were also well above normal last summer, long before the formation of the current El Niño. This warming is more likely associated with the "warm blob" in the northeast Pacific, which is likely a byproduct of the persistent ridging off the west coast that has been the prime factor in the ongoing drought.

To view historic Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies worldwide see http://ggweather.com/sst.htm. The clickable map is for the north Pacific but there is data for the entire globe via a pulldown menu. The data can also be displayed as a time series. Thanks to Scott Archer of IPS Meteostar for his programming wizardry in helping make this data so easily accessible.

Jan Null, CCM
Golden Gate Weather Services

Jan Null

Jan Null has been a meteorologist in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost five decades and is frequently seen on television and heard on the radio when weather is in the news. Twenty-six years ago he founded a consulting firm, Golden Gate Weather Services, after a 24-year career with the National Weather Service. Mr. Null is a Bay Area native, having grown up in Oakland and lived in the East Bay until 2006 when he moved to Saratoga. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Atmospheric Science from UC Davis in 1974 and his Master’s from San Jose State in 1992. Jan joined the National Weather Service in 1974 at the Weather Service Forecast Office in Redwood City. He worked as an operational forecaster throughout his career, including 13 years as Lead Forecaster. During his tenure at the NWS he also served as Meteorologist-in-Charge at the Center Weather Service Unit at the FAA’s Air Traffic Control Center in Fremont. He also did extensive research into the relationship between El Niño, La Niña and California rainfall and throughout his career he was a frequent media spokesperson for the agency. Jan has also been an Adjunct Professor and Lecturer at San Francisco and San Jose State Universities where he taught one evening a week for nearly 30 years. In 1998, Jan founded Golden Gate Weather Services, a consulting firm that specializes in forensic meteorology. He frequently serves as an expert witness in litigation where the weather is a factor. This often involves reconstructing past weather events or as his wife refers to it: “CSI Weather”. Mr. Null is also an internationally recognized expert of the sad topic of the heatstroke deaths of children in vehicles. After the death of a child left a vehicle in San Jose in 2001 he did a comprehensive study of vehicle temperatures that was ultimately published in Pediatrics in 2005. Since that time he has spoken at numerous national conferences and worked with a wide variety of child safety advocacy groups and agencies to raise awareness about the dozens of children who die from hyperthermia in hot vehicles each year. This data continues to be updated at NOHeatstroke.org. In his spare time he is a serious amateur photographer, specializing in wildlife and landscapes. Jan is married to Susan Hollis, a lifelong Saratoga resident and Realtor. He has two adult children in the Bay Area and the world’s most adorable 9-year old granddaughter and 4-year grandson.

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