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Pattern ENSO Updates

I'm honestly baffled why legitimate meteorologists/researchers still try to give the CFSv2 any credence regarding ENSO. This model has a notorious NINO bias (some of which stems from it's +SSTA bias in the southeastern Pacific), and like most climate models a profound "rebound"/sinusoidal bias, in which integrated ENSO behavior is more regular than reality. Unfortunately, it appears this model is being initialized w/ potentially erroneous CDAS1 data and is already ~0.2-0.3C above Reynolds OISSTv2, but in spite of this its newest forecast (blue) is appreciably less enthusiastic about a +ENSO event later this year. While another El Nino is not dynamically impossible, as suggested by the historical 150+ year modern ENSO and ~60 year QBO record, in the 2nd year immediately following the culmination of a strong-super NINO event, and under WQBO regime in the midst of neutral-negative ENSO, another cold La Nada-weak La Nina event is most likely for 2017-18...

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I'm honestly baffled why legitimate meteorologists/researchers still try to give the CFSv2 any credence regarding ENSO. This model has a notorious NINO bias (some of which stems from it's +SSTA bias in the southeastern Pacific), and like most climate models a profound "rebound"/sinusoidal bias, in which integrated ENSO behavior is more regular than reality. Unfortunately, it appears this model is being initialized w/ potentially erroneous CDAS1 data and is already ~0.2-0.3C above Reynolds OISSTv2, but in spite of this its newest forecast (blue) is appreciably less enthusiastic about a +ENSO event later this year. While another El Nino is not dynamically impossible, as suggested by the historical 150+ year modern ENSO and ~60 year QBO record, in the 2nd year immediately following the culmination of a strong-super NINO event, and under WQBO regime in the midst of neutral-negative ENSO, another cold La Nada-weak La Nina event is most likely for 2017-18...

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No soup for us?

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No soup for us?

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Yeah, unfortunately, Webber is almost always on top of things and he's just being an objective messenger based on past patterns. Looking at his own tables, I see four prior super-Nino winters (peak in 3.4 of +2+) and all 4 had a weak to moderate Nina two winters later. :(

However, some good news for those hoping we don't have a repeat is that the sample size is small. Also, and more importantly imo, we're currently and have been for the last month or so in neutral positive territory. All 4 of the previous post super-Nino cases were in anywhere from neutral negative to weak La Nina territory at this point. If we were to add 1972-3, which was just below super-Nino strength, it too was in weak La Nina territory at this point (it went on to weak La Nina the subsequent winter). So, maybe this means the outcome will be different for 2017-8?? Also, the next strongest after 1972-3 was 1902-3. It did have a weak El Nino follow it two winters later in 1904-5. By the way, that was one heck of a SE winter! At this point, it was actually still in neutral negative territory.

I maintain that if we can get El Nino (even a weak one, which I'd prefer over a strong one) for 2017-8, the odds of a cold 2017-8 would be much higher than normal based on 9 of 10 of El Ninos following weak La Ninas being cold. Keep hope alive for El Nino but also stay grounded in reality as ENSO evolves over the next few (very crucial) months.
 
Yeah, unfortunately, Webber is almost always on top of things and he's just being an objective messenger based on past patterns. Looking at his own tables, I see four super-Nino winters (peak in 3.4 of +2+) and all 4 had a weak to moderate Nina two winters later. :(

However, some good news for those hoping we don't have a repeat is that the sample size is small. Also, and more importantly imo, we're currently and have been for the last month or so in neutral positive territory. All 4 of the previous post super-Nino cases were in anywhere from neutral negative to weak La Nina territory at this point. If we were to add 1972-3, which was just below super-Nino strength, it too was in weak La Nina territory at this point (it went on to weak La Nina the subsequent winter). So, maybe this means the outcome will be different for 2017-8?? Also, the next strongest after 1972-3 was 1902-3. It did have a weak El Nino follow it two winters later in 1904-5. By the way, that was one heck of a SE winter! At this point, it was actually still in neutral negative territory.

I maintain that if we can get El Nino (even a weak one, which I'd prefer over a strong one) for 2017-8, the odds of a cold 2017-8 would be much higher than normal based on 9 of 10 of El Ninos following weak La Ninas being cold. Keep hope alive for El Nino but also stay grounded in reality as ENSO evolves over the next few (very crucial) months.
I don't question or ever doubt Webb (or you) - just making an observation (written between the lines so to say) with some humor tossed in, as it seems we need some about now ... :p
 
The Niño 3.4 is down to 0.2 C.

Nino 3.4 warmer back up 0.3 to +0.5C. This is the warmest 3.4 weekly since the decline of the super-Nino almost a year ago. Nino 4 warmed to its warmest in 9 months. Nino 1+2 warmed back up 0.5 to +1.1 after 4 straight weeks of cooling. Region 2 cooled slightly to +0.6.

To sum it up, maybe soup for us next winter after all? ;) We'll see. The next three months or so will be crucial.
 
http://iri.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/quick_look_composite_apr17-3.pdf

This is the April 20th update.

See the model plumes on the lower right side. Average forecast peak for 3.4 from dynamic models is +1.1, with the Euro, Australian, and French models right on top of the path of the average as far out as each goes. Only two of the 18 dynamic models clearly show it staying down in the neutral area: Scripps and LDEO. Some others: CMC +1.5; GFDL's +1.6 and +2.1; Korean +0.8; NASA +1.3 to +1.4; CFSv2 +1.0 and still rising; Saudi +1.9.

The soup is being prepared for possible consumption by southeasterners. Rumor has it that if all of the ingredients come together just right that it will be delicious. The most important ingredient to give the best shot at deliciousness is El Nino. The next 2-3 months of simmering will be quite crucial to a potential El Nino. Throw in a nice shot of -AO/-NAO blocking later on into the recipe as it gets close to being ready and the soup would be hard to beat.
 
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http://iri.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/quick_look_composite_apr17-3.pdf

This is the April 20th update.

See the model plumes on the lower right side. Average forecast peak for 3.4 from dynamic models is +1.1, with the Euro, Australian, and French models right on top of the path of the average as far out as each goes. Only two of the 18 dynamic models clearly show it staying down in the neutral area: Scripps and LDEO. Some others: CMC +1.5; GFDL's +1.6 and +2.1; Korean +0.8; NASA +1.3 to +1.4; CFSv2 +1.0 and still rising; Saudi +1.9.

The soup is being prepared for possible consumption by southeasterners. Rumor has it that if all of the ingredients come together just right that it will be delicious. The most important ingredient to give the best shot at deliciousness is El Nino. The next 2-3 months of simmering will be quite crucial.
Soup for you!
 
Btw ICYMI, I recently updated my reanalysis of 19th-21st century ENSO behavior via the "Ensemble Oceanic Nino Index (ENS ONI)" I've been running in near real-time for the past year or so. The biggest changes in this update of the index include the addition of ECMWF's newest reanalysis dataset, (ECMWF's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Reanalysis of the 20th Century), removal the very high resolution OISSTv2 (1/4th deg) & GHRSST OSTIA (1/20th) due to appreciable cold biases I found in these datasets (relative to others) that can be attributable to their disparate resolutions, as well as detection of an error in all December ONI data (which may have arisen in the previous version from an bug in my code used to calculate the monthly ONI)


In the following text file, I've outlined my methodology and have kept a record of various changes/additions to the ENS ONI over the past year or so & I also provided standardized data, rankings, a "confidence index", raw monthly SST data (rounded to the nearest .01), and Inter-dataset Variance to provide first guess uncertainty estimates. The forthcoming release of Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature Version 5 (ERSSTv5), NOAA's 20th Century Reanalysis Version 3 (NOAA 20CRv3), and Hadley Centre Sea Ice and Sea Surface Temperature Version 2 (HADISST2) within the next several months-year or so will warrant yet another reanalysis of the ENS ONI w/ more improved ONI estimates through the mid-19th century in addition to possible extension of the ENS ONI to 1860.

http://weatheradvance.com/home/weat...c-NINO-Index-ENS-ONI-Raw-Data-1865-522017.txt

When I get a chance here in the next week or two, I will also update and release an ensemble Southern Oscillation Index (ENS SOI) that I've been working on for the past several months.

Here are the updated ONI tables color coded according to the Trenberth (1997) definition, which differs slightly from the one used at the CPC. It's worth mentioning that Trenberth is one of the most distinguished ENSO scientists to date, the father of the NINO 3.4/ONI index, and that he designates ENSO events when the NINO 3.4 region sea surface temperature anomalies are greater than +/- ~ 0.4C for 6 successive tri-monthly periods...

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Btw ICYMI, I recently updated my reanalysis of 19th-21st century ENSO behavior via the "Ensemble Oceanic Nino Index (ENS ONI)" I've been running in near real-time for the past year or so. The biggest changes in this update of the index include the addition of ECMWF's newest reanalysis dataset, (ECMWF's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Reanalysis of the 20th Century), removal the very high resolution OISSTv2 (1/4th deg) & GHRSST OSTIA (1/20th) due to appreciable cold biases I found in these datasets (relative to others) that can be attributable to their disparate resolutions, as well as detection of an error in all December ONI data (which may have arisen in the previous version from an bug in my code used to calculate the monthly ONI)


In the following text file, I've outlined my methodology and have kept a record of various changes/additions to the ENS ONI over the past year or so & I also provided standardized data, rankings, a "confidence index", raw monthly SST data (rounded to the nearest .01), and Inter-dataset Variance to provide first guess uncertainty estimates. The forthcoming release of Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature Version 5 (ERSSTv5), NOAA's 20th Century Reanalysis Version 3 (NOAA 20CRv3), and Hadley Centre Sea Ice and Sea Surface Temperature Version 2 (HADISST2) within the next several months-year or so will warrant yet another reanalysis of the ENS ONI w/ more improved ONI estimates through the mid-19th century in addition to possible extension of the ENS ONI to 1860.

http://weatheradvance.com/home/weat...c-NINO-Index-ENS-ONI-Raw-Data-1865-522017.txt

When I get a chance here in the next week or two, I will also update and release an ensemble Southern Oscillation Index (ENS SOI) that I've been working on for the past several months.

Here are the updated ONI tables color coded according to the Trenberth (1997) definition, which differs slightly from the one used at the CPC. It's worth mentioning that Trenberth is one of the most distinguished ENSO scientists to date, the father of the NINO 3.4/ONI index, and that he designates ENSO events when the NINO 3.4 region sea surface temperature anomalies are greater than +/- ~ 0.4C for 6 successive tri-monthly periods...

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...and glad you're back here as well!!!!!

and BTW - where the heck else can one get such info!
 
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The SOI has continued to be predominantly negative (which is indicative of a potential Nino developing) and it looks to be going even more negative the next few days before rising back up.
 
The daily SOI has, indeed, gotten more negative the last couple of days. It should start heading back up around midweek although the next two days will likely remain solidly negative. An impressive 22 of the last 30 days have been negative. The 30 day average has dropped to -8 while the 90 day is almost down to -4.

The weekly for 3.4 issued today was at +0.5 C for the 3rd week in a row. Region 4 stayed at +0.3. Region 3 dropped slightly to +0.5. Region 1+2 dropped to +0.8.
 
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A downwelling oceanic Kelvin Wave is becoming evident ~150W in the sub surface ocean temperature anomaly plots over the Equatorial Pacific. While westerly wind anomalies currently prevail over the central Pacific atm, these are liable to be replaced by an easterly trade wind burst over the coming few weeks (or longer) as the MJO heads into the eastern hemisphere and attempts to momentarily re-invigorate the Walker Circulation.

wkxzteq_anm.gif

Easterly stratospheric wind anomalies have finally propagated down to about 20 hpa, signaling a potential forthcoming reversal of the QBO for the first time in two years. However, due to the easterly QBO's relationship w/ the Thermal Wind & Brewer-Dobson Circulation, the easterly anomalies may slow their forward progress over the coming months as the tropical stratosphere upwells, but this should bolster any oncoming El Nino by decreasing the static stability of the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere and providing more favorable upper level shear for near-equatorial convection.

C_EqcK4UIAApm6o.jpg
 
The weekly for 3.4 issued today was at +0.5 C for the 4th week in a row. The other 3 regions warmed either 0.1 or 0.2.

The SOI has risen into positive territory the last 3 days and should remain mostly positive for the next week or so. However, a sharp drop into negative territory is hinted at by the middle of next week based on a progged large drop in SLP at and all around Tahiti. Let's see if this actually looks to verify as this is a crucial time of year for ENSO.
 
I've created a new Extended MEI (MEI.ext) time series using the 10 ensemble members from ECMWF's 20th Century Reanalysis Model (ERA-20CM) and experimented with several PC weighting adjustments I plan to implement in the Ensemble Extended MEI (ENS-MEI.ext). I also provided rankings and a time series w/ the original MEI.ext definition without any PC weighting (although 30-year sliding base periods and the EOF region remained the same as the new definition. Any comments, questions, feedback, etc. would be greatly appreciated!
http://weatheradvance.com/home/weat...ploads/2017/05/ERA-20CM-MEI-1900-Nov-2010.txt

ERA-20CM Member 7 December 1982 Tropical Pacific SLPa

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