NOAA Reports La Nina Is Developing

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Scientists with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, in today’s release of its monthly El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion, say that La Nina is on its way.

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“While we can’t officially call it a La Nina yet, we expect that this pattern will continue to develop during the next three months, meeting the NOAA definition for a La Nina event later this year,” said Mike Halpert, acting deputy director of the Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Md.

La Nina refers to the periodic cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific that occur every three to five years. La Nina originally referred to a cooling of ocean waters off the coasts of Peru and Ecuador. NOAA declares the onset of a La Nina event when the three-month average sea-surface temperature departure exceeds -0.5 degrees C (-0.9 degrees F) in the east-central equatorial Pacific, between 5 degrees North and 5 degrees South latitude and 170 degrees and 120 degrees West longitude.

The development of La Nina conditions is supported by increasing below-normal sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific and stronger than average easterly winds across the west-central equatorial Pacific. “Nearly all operational dynamical models, including the National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s climate forecast system and many of the statistical models also favor a La Nina event,” said Halpert.

With La Nina developing, seasonal forecasters expect wetter than normal conditions in the Pacific Northwest and drier than normal conditions in the already drought stricken southwestern U.S. this fall.

“These conditions also reinforce NOAA’s August forecast for an above normal Atlantic hurricane season,” said Gerry Bell, Ph.D., NOAA’s lead seasonal hurricane forecaster.

The Climate Prediction Center will publish the next official ENSO diagnostic discussion on October 11. The El Nino/Southern Oscillation diagnostic discussion is a product of the Climate Prediction Center in association with its funded institutions.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

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National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration

CONTACT: Carmeyia Gillis of NOAA, +1-301-763-8000, ext. 7163

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