If the World weren’t on proverbial fire, we’d be able to pay closer attention to the world actually being on fire. The sea surface heating in this area is remarkable. Leon connects it to an imbalance of Earth’s outgoing heat to space vs “absorbed heat” (I like to call it Earth’s retained heat). Both are increasing, but the retained heat is increasing much faster, creating the imbalance. Much of this recent spike is due to reduced aerosols and reduced clouds (which are a result of the decrease in aerosols and a warming feedback). I’d take it one step further… this remarkable mid-high latitude heating is throwing weather patterns off-kilter. Just to give you an idea of how anomalously warm the North Pacific is, look no further than this graphic, much is record warm, and although the tropics assert primary control over global weather pattern, this N Pacific heat has a impact. 1/
