Record Warmth and Unprecedented Drop in Equatorial Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures in 2024

Abstract From February to March 2024, the equatorial Atlantic experienced its highest sea surface temperatures in at least 40 years. This extreme warm event was triggered by a favorable combination of El‐Niño‐induced westerly wind anomalies in the western equatorial Atlantic and Rossby wave reflection at the western boundary, leading to an exceptionally strong downwelling Kelvin wave. The warm event was extinguished abruptly around May by a locally‐forced upwelling Kelvin wave, causing an unprecedented rapid transition to a cold phase which lasted until August. The cold event did not fully develop into an Atlantic Niña due to weak Bjerknes feedback, warming from surface heat fluxes, and thermocline deepening due to a series of equatorial wave reflections. Nevertheless, the cold event is consistent with a northward shift of the intertropical convergence zone, increased rainfall over West Africa, Sahel, and Sahara, reduced rainfall over the Gulf of Guinea, and an earlier onset of the West African monsoon.

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Publication Details

Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Published
2025-06-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl115973
Primary Topic
Climate variability and models
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Record Warmth and Unprecedented Drop in Equatorial Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures in 2024

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Geophysical Research Letters
Climate variability and models
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Record Warmth and Unprecedented Drop in Equatorial Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures in 2024

Renellys C. Perez, Gregory R. Foltz, Hosmay Lopez, Franz Philip Tuchen, Robert West, Michael J. McPhaden, Peter Brandt, Sang‐Ki Lee, Arthur Prigent, Dongmin Kim
article en

Abstract

Abstract From February to March 2024, the equatorial Atlantic experienced its highest sea surface temperatures in at least 40 years. This extreme warm event was triggered by a favorable combination of El‐Niño‐induced westerly wind anomalies in the western equatorial Atlantic and Rossby wave reflection at the western boundary, leading to an exceptionally strong downwelling Kelvin wave. The warm event was extinguished abruptly around May by a locally‐forced upwelling Kelvin wave, causing an unprecedented rapid transition to a cold phase which lasted until August. The cold event did not fully develop into an Atlantic Niña due to weak Bjerknes feedback, warming from surface heat fluxes, and thermocline deepening due to a series of equatorial wave reflections. Nevertheless, the cold event is consistent with a northward shift of the intertropical convergence zone, increased rainfall over West Africa, Sahel, and Sahara, reduced rainfall over the Gulf of Guinea, and an earlier onset of the West African monsoon.

Geophysical Research LettersVol. 52(12)
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) (IT), University of Miami (US), NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (US), NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories (US), Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (DE), GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (DE)
Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program, NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Openalex Percentile: Top 86%
Climate variability and models
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