Hurricane Ian rapidly intensified from Category 3 to 5 as it transited the wide West Florida Shelf (WFS). This is ascribed to heating by the anomalously warm shelf waters, despite the water depth being shallow when compared to the thicker, mixed layer areas of the deeper ocean. By examining temperature from long-term moorings, we found that the sea surface and subsurface temperatures exceeded the climatologies by 1–2°C and 2–3°C, respectively. Additionally, these anomalously high temperatures in summer/fall of 2022 were related to the absence of Gulf of Mexico Loop Current interactions with the WFS slope at its “pressure point”. Without such offshore forcing to induce an upwelling circulation, the warmer waters on the shelf were not flushed and replaced by colder waters of deeper ocean origin. This work highlights the importance of subsurface temperature and ocean circulation monitoring on shallow continental shelves, which are largely overlooked in hurricane-related ocean heat content observational programs.

中文翻译：

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飓风伊恩的快速增强与广阔的大陆架上异常温暖的地下水有关


飓风伊恩在穿过宽阔的西佛罗里达大陆架 （WFS） 时迅速从 3 级增强到 5 级。这归因于异常温暖的大陆架水域的加热，尽管与深海较厚的混合层区域相比，水深较浅。通过检查长期系泊设备的温度，我们发现海面和地下温度分别比气候高出 1-2°C 和 2-3°C。此外，2022 年夏季/秋季的这些异常高温与墨西哥湾环流与其“压力点”处 WFS 斜率的相互作用缺失有关。如果没有这种近海强迫来诱导上升流环流，大陆架上较温暖的海水就不会被冲走，而是被来自更深海洋的较冷海水所取代。这项工作强调了浅大陆架地下温度和海洋环流监测的重要性，而这些在与飓风相关的海洋热含量观测计划中基本上被忽视了。