Here's an article about the SAL by a NOAA researcher that came out in April.

SAL Article

We've gotten at least 3" of rain here today and are expecting 1-2" more this evening. It's been raining every day again. This has been a weird May and June for here - mostly hot (upper 80's) and tons of T-storms based on upper features moving along the southern stream flow out of the W and NW. I'm not sure what ultra-rainy and warmer LA temps in early June signify, but if anyone has links to that data, feel free to see if there are any analogs for 2-3 months downstream.

As for the world, the SOI had gone slightly negative for a couple of days on the 3rd and 4th. This is often a precursor for WPAC tropical activity. Indeed, there are 2 invests out that way - 96W.INVEST and 07W.NONAME. You can see them here:

NRL Homepage

Index has returned to positive meaning it won't likely be signifying a lot of heat migrating eastward from the Sothern Pacific into the Eastern El Nino zones.

SSTA's are interesting. If you go to OTIS (see link below), you will notice some recent changes and some evolution in the oceans' climates.

FMNOC OTIS SSTA'S

There isn't a whole lot of shear around the Gulf right now (relatively). A medium jet might get cranking out the NW into the west-central Gulf after a couple of days, but that's not some 80mph shear zone. You can look at shear maps from the link below:

Shear page from ATWC (Some links don't work)

It looks like the Gulf is setting up nicely for later next week. It's tough to say if anything's going to develop, but we have an interrupted windflow, anticipated southerly and SEly air currents, a pretty strong wave getting into the picture and a piece of an old trof. I wouldn't say with 100% certainty that something's going to develop down there next week, but a setup (one of many different types) will be in effect. It should be an interesting week ahead to watch things to see if we can't get a TD or TS cranking.

Steve