I noticed during the 2005 and 2006 seasons that water temps seemed to be higher than I had ever noticed before. We know what happened those years. I had gone back several years on buoy's 42040, 42001and 42003 looking at the SST's. The 2005 and 2006 seasons were easily the highest I found.
I would love to see a chart comparing the high SST's to hurricane strength and frequency.
On June 17, 2005 the Mid Gulf buoy had a reading of 33.6C (92.48F).
YYYY MM DD hh BAR ATMP WTMP 2005 6 17 21 1010.2 29.4 33.6