Rain on The Plain In Spain

News readers are well aware of a terrific storm smacking Southern France and Northern Spain. It's deadly and numerous people have been killed. Officials are calling it the worst such storm in December 1999. Here is one key snippet from BBC: "The storm system has been gathering strength over the past few days as it moved over the relatively warm waters of the western Atlantic." As you can see from the lower graphic, there is a very warm area out in the middle of the Atlantic. This area is almost a mirror image of a similar warm area off our West Coast out in the Pacific.

These types of concentrated areas of abnormal Sea Surface Temperature (SST) warmth can have a great impact on weather systems. Not every system will be impacted. But you can easily see how the current mayhem in Spain has been exacerbated by that warm area in the Atlantic.

I bring all of this up as a caveat--the very same thing could indeed happen with one of the remaining systems due to wash ashore in our neck of the woods. It's fairly unlikely, mind you, but it IS a possibility. Keep an eye on those SST's via the link at left. The very same sort of thing could happen to our West Coast that is now happening to Spain.