El Nino and La Nina
-
NOAA’s latest update on the forecast for El Niño indicates that there are still mixed signals about the likelihood of an El Niño developing later this year. One observation in favor of the development is the current strong warming right off the coast of Peru and Ecuador, which is causing problems with tremendous flooding in…
-
One of the signs that an El Niño may be brewing in the eastern Pacific Ocean is a burst of unusually warm water near the coast that is contributing to heavy flooding in Peru. According to Yahoo News, at least 62 people have died and more than 70,000 have become homeless as Peru’s rainy season…
-
Jonathan Belles of the WunderBlog posted a new article this week about the increasing potential for El Niño to return by late summer. While it is by no means a sure thing, the probabilities for a return to El Niño are increasing, and are higher than the probabilities for neutral conditions by the July-September period.…
-
NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center announced today that La Niña is now officially over. This is just as expected based on the predictions of a weak event from late last year. The sea surface temperature map below shows that while the central Pacific is still colder than normal, the eastern Pacific is now above normal in…
-
The preliminary climate summary maps for the Southeast show that the temperature across the region was much warmer than normal everywhere, in some cases ten or more degrees above normal. This probably won’t be the hottest on record, but it certainly in the top five. The precipitation varied across the region, with the wettest amounts…
-
NOAA and NASA released separate reports today on the 2016 global climate. Both agencies using separate methods determined that 2016 was the warmest year on record, beating out last year’s record. The warmth included most of the globe with a few small areas of cooler temperatures. The NOAA report can be found at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/summary-info/global/201612 and the…
-
Those of us who watch the tropics for signs of El Niño or La Niña have noted that the recent weak La Niña seems to be dissipating pretty quickly. What will come next? Some of the models that have just come out are predicting a return to El Niño, and this set social media abuzz.…