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An intrusion of loop current water up DeSoto Canyon and onto the West Florida continental shelf to within 8 km of the shore occurred in February 1977. Boat, aircraft, and satellite data collected in the area for another purpose were used to estimate the space and time scales of the intrusion and the ultimate fate of the intruded waters. The duration of the event was 18 days. Oceanic waters advanced across the shelf at speeds of 20 cm s−1. At maximum intrusion, 6650 km2 of shelf were affected. Approximately half the intruded water receded off the shelf, and half appears to have been modified in situ.

In the summer of 1993, the Mississippi River basin in the midwestern United States experienced anomalously high rainfall. Record flooding resulted from an abnormally persistent atmospheric weather pattern consisting of a quasi‐stationary jet stream positioned over the central part of the nation, where moist, unstable air flowing north from the Gulf of Mexico converged with unseasonably cool, dry air moving south from Canada. In concert with the persistent weather pattern over the United States, highly anomalous circulation patterns were observed over much of the Northern Hemisphere [Richards, 1994]. The rainfall anomalies over the central United States produced abnormally high river discharges along the Louisiana coastline from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers during July and August, traditionally months of low river discharge. Some of the river water discharged into the northern Gulf of Mexico reached the Straits of Florida by September 1993 [Lee et al., 1994].

[1] Observations at the edge of the Loop Current after hurricane Katrina show inertial energy amplified at a depth of approximately 600$700 m. Ray-analysis using the eddy field obtained from a numerical simulation with data assimilation suggests that the amplification is due to inertial motions stalled in a deep cyclone. Citation: Oey,