NOAA ENSO Blog: Why Making El Niño Forecasts in the Spring Is Especially Anxiety-Inducing Given the relatively high probabilities for El Niño in our team’s April 2023 ENSO update, I decided to team up with some of my scientific colleagues, Antonietta Capotondi (NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory and University of Colorado, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences) and Aaron Levine (@afzlevine, University of Washington, Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies), to explain why […] Weather WeatherBrains | May 8, 2023 0 Comments
NOAA May Outlook: “Wetter Than Average for West Coast” What does the May outlook from NOAA NWS Climate Prediction Center look like? According to NOAA, May will be: Wetter than average for the Gulf Coast/West Coast. Drier-than-average for the Great Lakes/Midwest Warmer than average for the Pacific NW, Florida and New England Cooler than average for the SW and Tennessee Valley. NOAA reports that drought in May is expected […] Weather WeatherBrains | May 2, 2023 0 Comments
Why Did California Break So Many Records This Winter Even Though It Was La Niña? I am sure by now you are well aware of the record-breaking winter that California just experienced! To put this into perspective, the high terrain of California’s current snowpack is in the range of 195% to 300% of the normal average for this time of the season. Even more interesting is the snow water equivalent (amount of water locked up […] Weather Matthew Oliphant | April 25, 2023 0 Comments
Is a “Super El Niño” Event Coming? As most of you are probably aware, El Niño and La Niña are sea surface temperature oscillation events over the southern Pacific Ocean that can impact weather patterns worldwide. According to the National Ocean Service, during El Niño, trade winds from the Pacific weaken and warm water is pushed from the east to the west coast of the Americas. A shift […] Weather Zoe Loftin | April 14, 2023 0 Comments
NOAA ENSO April Update: 62% Chance of El Niño Conditions for May–July Well, that was quick! Just two months ago I was writing about La Niña for what seemed like the 97th month in a row, and then by March La Niña had departed. Today we’re hoisting an El Niño Watch, meaning that conditions are favorable for the development of El Niño conditions within the next 6 months. In fact, there’s a […] Weather SnowBrains | April 13, 2023 0 Comments
March 2023 ENSO Update: No More La Niña! This article originally appeared on climate.gov La Niña—the cool phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern—has left the building! After a year and half of non-stop La Niña, the tropical Pacific ocean-atmosphere system has transitioned to neutral, allowing NOAA to issue its “Final La Niña Advisory”. What can we expect for ENSO through the summer and into next […] Weather WeatherBrains | March 9, 2023 0 Comments
NOAA: July 2022 ENSO Update – 66% Chance of a La Niña Winter, ~5% Chance of El Niño Winter I’m in San Diego this week, gazing out across the Pacific toward La Niña’s cool tropical ocean surface. (I’m not here for Comic-Con, but there are a lot of posters around the city that keep that upcoming event in the forefront.) Just over my horizon, La Niña—the cool phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (“ENSO” for short)—remains in force, despite […] Weather WeatherBrains | July 15, 2022 0 Comments
May 2022 ENSO Update: 61% Chance of Another La Niña Next Fall and Early Winter Written by Emily Becker and published on climate.gov on May 12, 2022 May 2022 ENSO update: piece of cake La Niña continued through April, and forecasters estimate a 61% chance of a La Niña three-peat for next fall and early winter. Current El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO, the entire El Niño and La Niña system) conditions, the forecast for the rest […] Weather WeatherBrains | May 12, 2022 0 Comments
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