Is Mysterious 'Blob' Causing West Coast Drought? KOIN
go to original July 7, 2015

Scientists are looking into something they’ve deemed ‘the blob’ as a reason behind the heat and dry weather. (KOIN 6)

Scientists are looking into something they’ve deemed ‘the blob’ as a reason behind the heat and dry weather on the west coast.

The blob is a huge area of warmer-than-normal water in the Pacific Ocean that was first noticed 18 months ago. How it got there, however, is still a mystery.

“It’s now about the size of Alaska, so it’s a very big patch and it extends down through the top layer of the ocean which is about 300 feet deep,” Phil Mote, head of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at OSU, explained. “So that whole layer is exceptionally warm.”

Scientists are speculating the enormous blob - 1,000 miles in each direction from Alaska to Mexico  - could be causing the drought in Oregon, Washington and California.

Read the rest at WIVB.com

Related: Your Idle Computer Could Help Scientists Study the Drought (KPCC)

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