The Gulf of Mexico is Unusually Warm

As hurricane season approaches, there’s some not so good news. The Gulf of Mexico didn’t cool off very much this winter. You can see from this chart the the average water temperatures in the Gulf are running around 4° Fahrenheit above the long term average.  That’s waaaay above average.  And you’ll notice from the image below that the trend over the last several decades is warming. As you know, hurricanes get their energy from the warm water below. The warmer the water, the more available energy.