SST Anomalies -- March 2, 1998 The El Nino "warm pool" in the eastern tropical Pacific may be beginning to fade. Below normal anomalies are increasing both to the south and north of this "pool" along the equator. To the north of the equator, cooling conditions have reached the Mexican coastline in the past week. Erosion of the "warm pool" seems to be more active, at the moment, north of Tahiti in the western areas [180W to 150W]. Nevertheless, SSTs around Galapagos continue to persist just below 30C! An interesting note: The Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico has been extremely prominent during January and February. Exceptionally warm waters persisted [near 28C] in the center of this current that often extended as far north as 28N; the remainder of the Gulf of Mexico has been running below normal SSTs during this same period. However, in the past week or so, a large eddy has detached to the north, leaving the core of this current at 25N. With this detachment, SSTs have come down several degrees [C] to the north less fuel for FL storm events? See: http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/data/gulfmex.c.gif AES