It was and still is absolutely horrific, not even Phil could understand what we endured this weekend. Temp is at 57 degrees with a RH of 78% and the sun is still searing down upon us up here. Brutal.
The AMOC stuff is mostly hype. It slows and accelerates in response to intradecadal variability in the NAO (negative NAO slows AMOC via weakening of NATL High, vice versa for +NAO).
That’s why the AMOC slowed so substantially in the 1960s/70s. The most recent significant slowing was in 2010 following that anomalously negative NAO winter. But it recovered and was as vigorous as ever in the 2017-19 period. It has slowed again in 2024 but not quite to the extent it did in 2010.
AMOC velocity (blue) and temp (red). Velocity is smoothed on a running mean but if you look at year-to-year data you’ll see the substantial slowing in 2010.
https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/amoc/