Science Centres: Climate
An overview of the present climate in the tropical South Pacific Islands, with an outlook for the coming months, to assist in dissemination of climate information in the Pacific region.
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El Niño / Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
Conditions in the Tropical Pacific Ocean are currently on the brink of El Niño, however the atmosphere has not caught up yet with the ocean, and circulation patterns are atypical of El Niño.
A large majority of the models indicate that El Niño thresholds in both the atmosphere and the ocean will be exceeded over the forecast period.
The Tropical Pacific ocean is currently on the brink of El Niño, with a recent resumption of warming after a short-term dip in the sea surface temperatures (SST) indices.
The ensemble of global climate models for rainfall that are used in METPI show an area of higher than normal rainfall associated with the SPCZ position.
The Tropical Pacific is currently on the brink of El Niño, but the atmosphere is still not fully coupled to the ocean and atmospheric circulation anomalies typical of El Niño are not yet present. Convection and rainfall is still higher than normal in the western Pacific over the Maritime Continent.
Sources of South Pacific rainfall data
