Depressing news for the Gulf

By Dave Anderson:

Just two quick pieces of depressing news for anyone who spends any time in the Gulf of Mexico littoral.  Both are from Jeff Masters at Wunderground:

Oil entering the Loop Current:

Satellite imagery today from NASA's MODIS instrument confirms that a substantial tongue of oil has moved southeast from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and entered the Gulf of Mexico's Loop Current....

 The current flows northward into the Gulf of Mexico, then loops southeastward just south of the Florida Keys (where it is called the Florida Current), and then along the west side of the western Bahamas. Here, the waters of the Loop Current flow northward along the U.S. coast and become the Gulf Stream....

 The latest surface current forecasts from NOAA's HYCOM model show that oil could continue pouring into the Loop Current for most of the rest of the week. It is highly uncertain how diluted the oil might get on its voyage to northwestern Cuba and the Florida Keys this week, but the possibility for a major ecological disaster in the fragile Keys ecosystem cannot be ruled out....

Hot oceans and oil rig bowling possibilities:

Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) in the Atlantic's Main Development Region for hurricanes had their warmest April on record, according to an analysis of historical SST data from the UK Hadley Center. SST data goes back to 1850, though there is much missing data before 1910 and during WWI and WWII. The area between 10�N and 20�N, between the coast of Africa and Central America (20�W - 80�W), is called the Main Development Region (MDR) because virtually all African waves originate in this region. These African waves account for 85% of all Atlantic major hurricanes and 60% of all named storms. When SSTs in the MDR are much above average during hurricane season, a very active season typically results (if there is no El Ni�vent present.) SSTs in the Main Development Region (10�N to 20�N and 20�W to 85�W) were an eye-opening 1.46�C above average during April. This is the third straight record warm month, and the warmest anomaly measured for any month--by a remarkable 0.2�C. The previous record warmest anomalies for the Atlantic MDR were set in June 2005 and March 2010, at 1.26�C.

So there is plenty of energy waiting for some good waves to form in another month or two to line up the oil rigs and the cities of the US South.  Wonderful! Not.