The monthly series doesn’t quite capture what has been happening this year.

Since March of this year, the North Atlantic has been consistantly half a degree above last year and a full degree above the 1982-2011 average temperature. Temperature records have been broken every day since March.

We are in completely new territory now. Normally El Niño increases wind shear in the Atlantic, which makes hurricane formation more difficult. This increase in sea surface temperature may offset that. Things are going to be unpredictable.