ENSO

ENSO / News

Latest ENSO conditions

I decided to look in more detail at Pacific SST in the four Niño ENSO areas and plot more a more detailed weekly graphs of SST and anomalies rather than rely on the monthly values as I’ve done till now. The weekly data is provided by NCEP, and extends back to January 1990. ENSO calculations are complicated and most countries that have an interest have different approaches for what constitutes an El Niño or a La Niña event. We are at the moment in a weakish El Niño event that started in September of 2018 and which at the moment...

ENSO / Sea Ice

Polar sea ice extent since 1990

I have always thought that following sea ice extent using daily SII values from the NSIDC was not a good idea. Even following weekly, monthly or seasonal extremes didn’t seem to simplify the ‘noise’ that you got with line graph or bar chart. That’s why in my opinion a graph of moving 365 day average sea ice extents is ideal at looking at the long term trend in the last 30 years. The Arctic has most people must now realise has seen a steady decline since 1990, although in the last year the 365 day average has recovered somewhat, although...