Typhoon Halong trekked over warmer than normal waters

Ex-typhoon Halong traversed warmer than normal sea surface on virtually its entire trek across the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea.

In the wake of the storm, we might have expected to see surface waters in the eastern Bering Sea to cool a bit relative to normal due to the mixing of the ocean water by the strong winds. However, that has not happened. In fact, as this week's graphic shows, nearly a week after the storm, sea surface temperatures remain warmer than normal virtually everywhere in the Bering Sea, with the water from Nome southward to the Yukon delta region 4°F to 6°F above normal.

While this level of difference from normal sometimes occurs during early summer in Norton and Kotzebue Sounds, ocean temperatures this far above normal is very significant for this time of year, because solar heating is only a small fraction of what it is near the summer solstice and water from the big rivers flowing into the Bering Sea is not much not overheated by Interior heat waves.

In fact, for most of the northern Bering Sea, sea surface temperatures are the warmest for this time of year since 2018. While lower temperature in the upcoming weeks will allow the ocean waters to cool, unless it were to turn and stay much colder than normal, the warm water will likely delay sea ice formation along the Alaska Bering Sea coast.