North Atlantic SST dipole and more lows like Hector

[xmetman]

The sea surface temperature anomalies seem to get more and more bizarre with each passing month.

The cold pool that extends NE from the Grand Banks seems to have intensified (-3°C or lower), and the warm belt that covered much of the central Atlantic has been effectively cut in two, with a cut off blob of anomalously warm water (+3°C) extending from 40N 45W  eastward across the Azores. 

I suppose that this enhanced thermal boundary across the central Atlantic can only mean more potent extratropical low's like Hector.

The very warm Baltic is the result of the very warm May across that part of Europe.