The warm water extension of the Iberian Poleward Current off northern Spain (Navidad) was examined in the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) satellite archive (1979--2000) and in a time series of January sea surface temperatures. Winter warming in the southern Bay of Biscay during Navidad years was correlated with low values of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) Index for the preceding months (November--December). Exceptional Navidad development and winter warming were observed during January 1990, January 1996, and January 1998, and extensive measurements were gathered for these 3 years. The Eastern Boundary poleward warming was found to extend from Portugal to Norway in exceptional Navidad years. The long-term changes of SST in the Navidad region (1967--2000) were analyzed in the frame of the decadal variation for the Celtic shelf (1890--2000), which showed an increase of 1¿C over the century. During January 1990 and January 1996, cloud-free images of Navidad showed a pronounced production of slope water oceanic eddies (swoddies) in the SE corner of the Bay of Biscay. The small-scale properties of one of these swoddies (F90) were analyzed during summer from measurements at sea (RRS Discovery 193 cruise; July 1990). SeaSoar sections showed the physical structure of the swoddy core. The distribution and abundance of chlorophyll a associated with the swoddy was determined. It is shown that a swoddy has a higher chlorophyll a maximum in the seasonal thermocline than associated cyclones. Simultaneous satellite observations of the sensors AVHRR, Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), and altimeter (combined TOPEX/Poseidon/ERS-2 data) were used to analyze the remote sensing properties of three summer swoddy-like eddies during August 1998. The summer SeaWiFS chlorophyll a concentration at the center of the eddy near 45.5¿N, 6¿W (AE6) was appraised against a time series (September 1997 to April 2001) of SeaWiFS chlorophyll a concentration representative of a central region of the Bay of Biscay.