Western Pacific heat engine starting to run out of gas

 With the RSS world temperature chart, we can see a lot of structure.

Recently, we have had the big peak at 2016, and then, smaller peaks.  The big peak had the Pacific current reversing, but I wasn't looking at heat engines then.  The subsequent bumps have been sections of the equatorial belt that have 'turned on'.  

There are many El Ninos and La Ninas.  You can't be absolute here, physics gives us many shades of grey.  The big bump after 2016 was 2019, when only half the ocean was involved.  Then we had the east Pacific going, and now, the west.

Each of these bumps had an energy rating, which we cannot calculate while its happening.  We can only look at the total effect on the temperature bumps at the end.  The greater the area under the bump, the greater the total heat energy released.  Comparing to earthquakes, we can use a magnitude scale connected to energy.  The bigger bump is M9, and the smaller ones are M7 or less.

This latest one seems to be breaking up.  The mechanism for these 'heat volcanoes' is unknown.  If we had a mechanism then we could calculate the total effect as it starts, just like an earthquake.  It's pretty tough to do the same with volcanoes.

This latest marvellous 'Big Heat Engine' was high-energy.  It created powerful tropical plumes that stayed low and fast, and then smashed into Vancouver.  Ask those guys how the weather's been lately.  Then the heat energy went right over NA and sucked up a lot of heat from the Gulf and Atlantic.  It created and maintained the 'Great Heat Pipe' up the centre of NA.  Then it went over and hit Europe.

This pattern has been consistent since the heat engine started.  You get a northern 'river', but the most important is the African river, going up into the Russian north.

Both of these 'heat pipes', central NA, and Africa, have given the Arctic circle a lot of warmth.  However, the central pole area has been cold, and the Arctic ice volume is zooming up.

This really is a case of the 'plume fairies' keeping in the cold Arctic cows.  However, this is physics and not philosophy.  The hot air contains energy, and warms the outer edges of the cold air, thus 'retaining' it.

As I said, though, this pattern is breaking up and 'clairslides' are starting to come down.  Europe had one a while ago, now it's China.  These are cold, clear, blobs of high-density air, and they act with their own physics, due to momentum.  One froze Texas.  These clairslides are getting more common as we enter a cool cycle.  

Toronto is getting one now, but the Great Lakes will save us, keep things warm while dumping a ton of snow on Huntsville.  Yeah!

ps.  I am up to 14 steady readers now.  Yeah!