Are alarm bells beginning to go off?

It is crystal ball time as anticipation builds in North America for the annual Atlantic Ocean storm season which begins June 1. George Day shares his reading in this Cruising Compass report:

Having spent so much of my life on the high seas where weather watching becomes something of an obsession, we do tend to revisit ocean trends in this space on a fairly regular basis. A lot of our readers migrate north and south every spring and fall and make ocean crossings from time to time. We need to get this weather stuff right.

Recently, I reported on the forecast change in the South Pacific from the current El Nino to a contrary La Nina this summer. That will bring a higher likelihood of named storms to the tropical Atlantic, Gulf and southeast US.

Now, the European Climate Center is reporting that Atlantic Ocean temperatures are soaring to record levels, particularly in the region west of the Cape Verde Islands, where many Atlantic tropical disturbances are born. In this chart, the short black squiggle at top left is this year. Are alarm bells beginning to go off?

The net result of a warming ocean is more storms, more sudden storms and more forceful storms. As always, if you are passage making this spring, keep a weather eye and listen carefully to the Chris Parkers (weather consultants) of the world. To read more, click here.