British Columbia Climate Changes
This year British Columbia has been experiencing some insanely warm weather, even in the winter. What seems to be the cause of this is a strange and unknown “blob” of warm water in the Pacific Ocean. Nicholas Bond, a climate scientist studying at the University of Washington first came across and discovered the “blob”. He came up with the term and since they have been keeping an eye on it and watching it’s every move. This interesting patch of warm water is 1,000 kilometres long and more than 2 degrees celsius higher in temperature than it’s normal.
An organization called “Ocean Networks Canada” suggest that this may have developed due to a weak low pressure system which is causing there to be heat trapped in the nutrient rich water. This should not be happening, instead the mixing of cool and warm water temperatures should mix and not create trapped heat. This blob now stretches from Alaska to Mexico.
Scientists are researching constantly and receiving information about this blob. Something they have discovered is that this blob of warm water is dangerous to salmon and other fish. Salmons do not regulate body temperature so this is a huge event that is occurring. There are many other fish like salmon that are having the same issue. Scientists do not know for sure what the full impact of this will be on sea life or how long it will take before it disappears but it will take a while to gather all the details.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ocean-blob-could-be-responsible-for-warmer-temperatures-1.3084610