The waters traversed by Gabrielle on Monday and Tuesday were running about 1 to 1.5 degrees Centigrade (2–3 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than average, part of a vast zone of unusually toasty sea surface temperatures (SSTs) stretching across most of the subtropical Atlantic. This anomalous warmth was made 20 to 100 times more likely by human-caused climate change, according to the Climate Shift Index: Ocean from Climate Central. Warming oceans over the past decade have fueled a number of tropical-cyclone encounters with the Azores, where cool SSTs often tamp down any direct impacts from hurricanes and tropical storms. The most recent named system to affect the Azores was Subtropical Storm Patty, just prior to it becoming Tropical Storm Patty, in early November 2024.
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