Ocean Surface Temperatures

I'm exhausted, as I have been for most of the day, but I'm still not even close to finishing my lecture for tomorrow (on worldwide habitat diversity, among other things), so tonight doesn't look like it's going to be nearly as sleep-filled as I'd like. I put off lecture writing to ensure that I got my data analysis lab for tomorrow written, the text of which ended up reaching nine pages. Summarizing all of Tufte in two pages, and an entire statistics course in five pages, was fun.

One cool thing I did find tonight, though, were some NOAA Sea Surface Temperature Contour Charts (thumbnail-free link). They're apparently updated every few days, and are tremendously detailed. The 50km worldwide map has just filled my "Worldwide Ocean Temperatures" slide perfectly.

Here's the current map of North America:

NOAA surface ocean temperature map based on satellite data from 9/11/2004 through 9/12/2004.

Of course the problem with these maps is that I'm noticing all the locations that have luxuriously warm water, where I could be lounging on a beach gazing up at the stars right now after a long day of casual diving. The Sea of Cortez looks especially appealing right now, and it's only a few hours drive away ...

Oh well, reality calls.