A gargantuan blob of warm water that’s been parked off the West Coast for 18 months is part of a larger pattern that helps explain California’s drought, Washington’s snow-starved ski resorts and record blizzards in New England, according to new analyses by Seattle scientists.

The researchers aren’t convinced global warming is to blame, which puts them at odds with other experts who suspect Arctic melting upset the “polar vortex” and contributed to the misery on the East Coast the past two winters.

University of Washington climate scientist Nick Bond coined the term “The Blob” to describe the pool of water, up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than usual, that blossomed offshore in the fall of 2013. It’s still there, hundreds of miles wide and stretching from Alaska to Mexico.