Researchers still need to collect temperature data throughout August to determine if a La Niña has in fact formed over the equator in the Atlantic Ocean, but this summer has already been unusual, said Franz Philip Tuchen, a postdoctoral associate with the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies.
The year started with record high sea surface temperatures, topping 86 degrees, before quickly and dramatically cooling off. This type of whiplash is more dramatic than any year before, Tuchen recently wrote.
“It’s almost unprecedented in the time series that we have, and that’s longer than 40 years,” he told Nexstar.
If the Atlantic sea surface temperatures stay where they were around June and July, it’ll officially constitute a La Niña in the Atlantic.
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