39 Transition Dates

Description: The date that cool winter conditions transition to warm stratified summer conditions.

Indicator family:

• Oceanographic

Contributor(s): Kevin Friedland

Affiliations: NEFSC

39.1 Introduction to Indicator

Transition dates are defned as the day of the year when surface temperatures changeover from cool to warm conditions in the spring and back to cool conditions in the fall.

39.2 Key Results and Visualizations

Ocean summer length in Mid-Atlantic: the annual total number of days between the spring thermal transition date and the fall thermal transition date. The transition dates are defined as the day of the year when surface temperatures changeover from cool to warm conditions in the spring and back to cool conditions in the fall.

39.2.1 MidAtlantic

39.2.2 NewEngland

39.3 Indicator statistics

Spatial scale: by EPU

Temporal scale: Annual time series (1982 to 2023)

Synthesis Theme:

• Multiple System Drivers

39.4 Implications

Prolonged fall temperatures have been linked to the increased number of cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley sea turtles found in Cape Cod Bay [60]

39.5 Get the data

Point of contact: kevin.friedland@noaa.gov

ecodata name: ecodata::trans_dates

Variable definitions

1. falltrans
2. sprtrans
3. maxday

Indicator Category:

• Database pull

39.6 Public Availability

Source data are publicly available.

39.7 Accessibility and Constraints

No response

tech-doc link https://noaa-edab.github.io/tech-doc/trans_dates.html

References

60.

Griffin LP, Griffin CR, Finn JT, Prescott RL, Faherty M, Still BM, et al. Warming seas increase cold-stunning events for Kemp’s ridley sea turtles in the northwest Atlantic. PLOS ONE. 2019;14: e0211503. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0211503