The El Niño climate effect will continue through the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2015-16, that is this month and January and February 2016.
An El Nino/Southern Oscillation diagnostic discussion issued by the Climate Prediction Centre and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (US Govt) reveals that a strong El Niño was experienced last month as indicated by well above-average sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.
However the subsurface temperatures, while still well above average, decreased slightly due to the eastward push of the upwelling phase of an equatorial oceanic Kelvin wave.
The discussion indicated that low-level westerly wind anomalies and upper-level easterly wind anomalies continued over most of the tropical Pacific.
“Collectively, these atmospheric and oceanic anomalies reflect a strong El Niño episode that has matured,” says the report by the US Climate Prediction Centre.
“El Niño has already produced significant global impacts and is expected to affect temperature and precipitation patterns across the United States during the upcoming months.”
Model predictions still remain that the 2015 El Nino will continue into 2016 and is likely to weaken towards the middle of next year.
Photo caption: Average sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies (°C) for the week centered on 2 December 2015. Anomalies are computed with respect to the 1981-2010 base period weekly means.
Source: Climate Prediction Centre/NCEP/NWS
