Large-scale air-sea interactions over the North Pacific from summer 1962 through the subsequent winter

The extensive and persistent warmth of central and eastern North Pacific waters during the last half of 1962 and early 1963 is described and attributed to prevailing abnormal wind and weather systems. Evidence is presented to indicate that the evolution of the large-scale prevailing atmospheric systems was partly determined by the anomalous water temperatures as well as forcing influences due to a seasonal change in the elevation of the sun. The evidence is partly statistic-synoptic and partly physical, involving computations of sensible and turbulent heat exchange as well as radiation balance. Among the more outstanding weather abnormalities treated are the strange behavior of typhoon Freda and the extremely abnormal winter of 1962–1963 over much of the northern hemisphere.