New Zealand Climate Update 199 - January 2016
15 January 2016
What happened in December, how our climate outlook for the previous three months turned out, global and local sea temperatures, and our outlook for January to March.
Global setting: December 2015
Sea surface temperature anomalies in the central and eastern Pacific have weakened slightly, but still exceed +2oC.
Outlook: January – March 2016
January - March 2016 temperatures are most likely (45% chance) to be above average for the east of the North Island.
Retrospective: October - December 2015 Outlook
During October - December 2015, above normal pressure was forecast to the north and west of New Zealand, while below normal pressure was expected to the east and south of the country. This circulation pattern was likely to be accompanied by anomalous southwesterly wind flows - a signature of El Niño conditions.