Air temperatures in the Northeast US are warming more slowly than sea-surface temperatures (SST), with regional long-term trends in air temperature increasing with latitude. Air-sea heat exchange is the dominant factor driving interannual variability of Northeast US SST in the spring (Chen 2018). Summer SSTs are not related to air temperature and are more strongly associated with ocean dynamics. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and east Pacific/North Pacific (EP/NP) patterns are strongly correlated with air temperature anomalies across the U.S., including the northeast, and this relationship has been getting stronger since the 1950s ((Chen 2018, Schulte et al., 2017). Air temperature is also the primary driver of river and estuarine temperature variability throughout most of the year.
