In the North of the North Pacific up near Alaska there is a very large area of clear Ocean that that can be seen through the clouds which looks a little like a giant rotating eye.
Here we see it in context along side North America, and the entire rotating high-pressure area appears to be roughly the size of North America. Its presence appears to be contributing to the big freeze in Canada and all the snow in the US.
And here we see it on December 27-28. At the bottom of the animations you can see the onshore atmospheric river flows which are bringing massive rains to California, and moisture to the midwest and north east.
The next four tweets contain animations of this behemoth blocking high over the last 4 days - each 12 hours long. This one begins at 1am CET (midnight on Christmas Eve GMT/Midday NZT) and shows the early development of the core on Christmas Day.
By 13:00 CEST on Christmas Day the size of the clear ocean eye is 770k km2,
And by 13:00 CEST on Boxing Day it has grown 1 million km2 to 1.75 million km2.
On the third day of Christmas the clear ocean part has moved north as whispy looking clouds move in to cover the Southern half of the circulation. The clear ocean area looks a lot bigger because it is further north but is actually just 17,000 km2 bigger at 1.82 million km2.
On the fourth day of Christmas the rotation is at its most spectacular, turning into something that looks like a rotating leaf/whale, albeit one which is now 2.2million km2 in size. A little bit bigger than Mexico.
This special animation of this phase runs for 24 hours from 2pm CEST yesterday to 2pm today - and shows the rotating pupil of the #EyeOfThePacific at its most magnificent IMO.
And this final 12 hour animation takes us up to now. The clear area of the eye is beginning to fill but it remains close to its peak at 1.9million km2.
This images shows the overlaid measurements used in this thread.
This five day MLSP forecast suggests the #EyeOfThePacific will remain open for at least one more day, possibly two, and I will update this thread with its final evolution.
(continuing story)
P.S. The GFS model suggests a similar pattern may return in mid January.
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If @realDonaldTrump chooses to join Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign if he is not obeyed …. he WILL find himself indicted in the international criminal court in The Hague.
And he will then have to make a decision on whether he is willing to remain in the U.S.
@realDonaldTrump Should he proceed as he has intimated that he should now be pursued by protestors everywhere he goes.
There is a lot of concern about evacuations of civilians from Gaza in the flotilla as anyone leaving may not be able to return any time soon. /2
But the moral hazard here is palpable. There are thousands of injured and starving mostly women and children. And we saw the young babies dying in the hospitals in the early stages of this war. /3
More and more naval vessels from Europe and the Middle East are being deployed to protect the Global Samir Flotilla as it moves slowly but surely towards Gaza where it intends to deliver aid and global attention. /1
Attacks from drones on the flotilla have resumed and Israel is presumably responsible for this. It is because of this that naval vessels from Europe are now joining the flotilla to protect their citizens rights of travel in international waters. /2
The escalation appears fairly slow at present and the flotilla is still within Greek waters at present /3
The #Samud #GazaFlotilla is currently sailing across the Ionian Sea towards the island archipelago south east of Athens in the Western Mediterranean. Conditions appear good for this leg that departed from Sicily after leaving Tunisia. The Flotilla set off from Barcelona.
2/ this current leg is 860 kms roughly and lead boats in the 51 vessel flotilla are currently approaching south western Greece. You can follow the flotillas progress here >> flotilla-orpin.vercel.app
3/ After two drone attacks on flotilla boats in Tunisia the flotilla sailed first to Sicily where it was joined by several more boats. And this map shows the path of the flotilla so far. The numbers in the dots indicate more vessels joining #GazaFlotilla