Extreme ocean conditions of the 2024 hurricane season formed by rare combination of drivers

Record heat was observed in the tropical North Atlantic in 2023 and 2024. However, in 2024, in contrast to the previous year, most of the record-breaking surface and sub-surface temperatures were focused in the western two thirds of the basin. This allowed for intensification of hurricanes into major storms prior to landfall. Water mass transformation analysis reveals much of the anomalous warm water volume arose from atmospheric heat flux into the ocean. Lagrangian analysis then shows how, atypically, warm water was advected to the west by a rarely observed zonal pathway. Thus, combined heat exchanges via air-sea heat transfer and ocean currents coordinated to result in record breaking temperatures in the western tropical Atlantic in 2024, allowing development of landfalling major hurricanes when atmospheric and oceanic conditions were aligned and conducive to tropical cyclone development.