Departures of 1996 Temperatures and Salinities in the Middle Atlantic Bight and Gulf of Maine from Historical Means

Monthly monitoring of surface and water column temperature, and surface salinity across the Middle Atlantic Bight and Gulf of Maine has been conducted since 1976 and 1978, respectively. Presented are the temporal and spatial patterns of these features in 1996 and their comparisons to mean patterns for the base period, 1978–92. Middle Atlan-tic Bight surface and bottom temperatures and surface salinities during 1996 were the lowest since the beginning of the base period. Annual, 1996, averaged surface tempera-ture over the entire transect was 1.9°C lower than the base period mean; similarly aver-aged bottom temperature was-0.8°C cooler; and like averaged surface salinities was 1.17 PSU below that of the base period. In the more detailed time-space sense, Middle Atlantic Bight temperatures were significantly lower than average 1) over the mid- to outer shelf from February through April, 2) over the shelf and slope during July and August, 3) over the mid-shelf in October, and 4) well offshore in November. Negative departures of sur-face salinity occurred over the shelf throughout 1996 and after July over the entire transect reaching the Gulf Stream. Bottom temperatures were significantly below average on th