Figure 2

Sea surface temperature anomalies and evolution. (a) SST (°C) from the ERSST dataset for the period July 2014–June 2016 are plotted relative to the average over July 2004–June 2012. The map was created using Generic Mapping Toolbox v5.2.1 (gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/). (b) Temporal evolution of the zonally-averaged SST as a function of latitude. Both panels show that the recent period has a cold anomaly in the subpolar gyre, but also a warm anomaly in the subtropics. (c) Line plots of the zonally-averaged SSTs, where each line represents an average of 2-years. The periods included are the early part of the last cold AMO period (1963–1973, blue) and the late part (1973–1996, red). Black shows the profile for the 2 year period: July 2014–June 2016. (d) NAO index where the bar for 2015 represents the December 2015–February 2016 period.