September 6, 2019 — A heat wave forming off the west coast in the Pacific Ocean resembles a 2014-15 phenomenon that led to major disruptions to marine life along the western seaboard, federal scientists said Thursday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) wrote in a blog post that a growing belt of warm water that stretches from Alaska to California “ranks as the second largest marine heatwave in terms of area in the northern Pacific Ocean in the last 40 years, after ‘the Blob,’ ” referring to the 2014-15 heat wave.
“It’s on a trajectory to be as strong as the prior event,” said scientist Andrew Leising of NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, Calif.
“Already, on its own, it is one of the most significant events that we’ve seen,”Leising added.