An Ominous Offshore Development
Over the weekend, a report in The Record indicated that temperatures of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New Jersey were running about 10 degrees warmer than usual and that stretches back to the winter. It’s meant some spectacular fishing opportunities and it’s helped moderate winter temperatures, but there’s a dark side to the warm waters.
It would mean that should a hurricane track up the East Coast it might not weaken as much as such storms would ordinarily do. Hurricanes rely on the warm waters for their strength and they ordinarily weaken as they head north.
Now, if such a storm were to track up the coast, it may stay stronger for much longer, and increases the chances that the storm will cause serious damage.
The warmer than normal water temperatures were part of the reason that the NOAA increased their prediction for named storms and hurricanes through the end of the hurricane season that typically ends November 1. August into September are the height of hurricane season.