Golden Gate Weather Services

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I took this picture of humpback whales lunge feeding Monday near Moss Landing, CA. But it's NOT because of El Niño!

Though given the number of media linkages of El Niño to just about every marine animal story along the California coast the mythology has taken on a life of it's own.  There continues to be the misconception that because El Niño has something to do with warmer than normal somewhere in the Pacific AND waters along the California coast are warmer than normal THEN they are related.  They are not!

The current warm water anomalies along the California coast first showed up in February 2014 but the tropical Pacific (i.e., Niño 3.4 region) did not reach minimal El Niño strength until November 2014. 

[link to animated GIF of above image]

And this is not unique to this El Niño. Historical SST records of northern and central California SST anomalies show that during the five strong and very strong  El Niño events (1957-58, 1965-66, 1972-73, 1982-83, 1997-98) only two were warmer than normal.  And along the southern California coast, three of the five were about normal.

Jan Null, CCM
Golden Gate Weather Services

The updated forecast models for El Niño Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies (SSTA) from IRI/CPC have gotten even stronger.  Last month's average of the 17 dynamic models had the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) peaking at 2.2 in the October/November/December (OND) period and now they are forecast to peak at 2.5 in OND and stay there through NDJ. If these numbers verify, then we are looking at SSTA's that rival 1997-98 and 1982-83.

Even with all the usual caveats about no guarantees, this trend is very encouraging for a continuing increase in the chances of above normal precipitation in California. Additional El Niño related links can be found at the El Niño / La Niña Resource Page.  Stay Tuned.  

Jan Null, CCM
Golden Gate Weather Services


 
 


 

As sea surface temperatures and their forecasts continue to rise, so does the level of hype and misinformation about El Niño in general and it's impact on California in particular.  To try and give it all a bit of a reality check please see the Misconceptions of El Niño.

In recent days, there have been several media references relating the disastrous 1997 New Year's floods and the January 1982 flooding and mudslides to El Niño.  Both of these events occurred the winter before the 1982-83 and 1997-98 El Niño events. 

Here are some other updated related to El Niño links:
El Niño & La Niña Resource Page

Oceanic Nino Index (ONI)
Latest ENSO Advisory
CPC/IRI ENSO Model Prediction Plume

El Niño / La Niña Winter Historic Precipitation & Temperatures
Climatology of El Niño Events and California Precipitation 
El Niño & La Niña...Are They Related to  California Flooding? 

Jan Null, CCM
Golden Gate Weather Services
http://ggweather.com
 

There has been much speculation about whether the heavy and prolonged "monsoonal flow" precipitation early this summer into Southwest and the southern Plains has been a characteristic of the building El Niño. Below are the precipitation anomalies for the years where the Oceanic Niño Index was at least +0.5 for the May-Jun-Jul (MJJ) period and it was increasing, along with a composite map of all the years.  Based on the composite there does not appear to me an overriding "signal".  See http://ggweather.com/enso/summer/summer_precip.htm for individual years.



Jan Null, CCM
Golden Gate Weather Services
http://ggweather.com

July 2015 surely defined a mixed climatological bag.  Average maximum temperatures ranged from 3.6 degrees above normal (Eureka) to 2.0 below normal at San Jose, while precipitation varied from zero (most places) to 5700% of normal at San Diego!

Even across relatively short distances there were large variations in the average maxima, with San Francisco's anomaly +2.6 and San Jose -2.0, occurring across just 40 miles.  Los Angeles and San Diego were likewise juxtaposed with -1.4 and +2.3 respectively.  Also interesting were the average minima for the month with everyone being above normal, in a range from +5.2 (Redding) to +1.7 (Fresno).

The huge variations in the rainfall were due to the influx of subtropical moisture, including the remnants of Hurricane Dolores, that produced some locally rain the southern half of the state; and also the very low normals for the month of July.

See http://ggweather.com/calif/jul2015.htm 

Jan Null, CCM
Golen Gate Weather Services

El Niño Category Changes  - Upon Further Review

Just like a sporting event where they go to instant replay to possibly overturn a decision, the same is true with the classification of El Niño's and La Niña's.  This has happened with the dataset used to calculate the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) and consequently the "category" of nearly a dozen El Niño and La Niña events has changed.  This was the result of the Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST) dataset being upgraded to ERSSTv4 from ERSSTv3.  (See details and previous ONI dataset) 

The ONI is a retrospective tool and is used to classify past events, and sometimes the most recent month or two values may shift slightly.  It is also not the best indicator in real-time events because it is a 3-month average and may not represent recent dynamic changes very well.  For a year to be classified historically as a warm (El Niño) or cool (La El Niña) event there must be at least 5 consecutive over-lapping 3-month periods above/below the +0.5 degrees C criteria.

This updated ONI data and list of events is annotated with an asterisk to show the ones that changed a category.  In total 23% of the 3-month periods (from 1950 to present) are cooler by 0.1 deg C, 4% cooler by 0.2 deg C, 1% cooler by 0.3 deg C, 20% warmer by 0.1 deg C, 5% warmer by 0.2 deg C and 47% remaining unchanged. This resulted in 9 events decreasing a category while 2 bumped up a category.

Of most recent interest is that last winter (2014-15) is no longer historically counted as an El Niño year because JFM was adjusted to 0.4 deg C, breaking the string of 5 consecutive periods at or above the 0,5 deg C criteria for a weak El Niño.

Summary of event changes:
2014-15  - no longer El Niño
2008-09  - no longer La Niña
2005-06  - no longer La Niña
1999-00 - from strong to moderate El Niño
1994-95 - from moderate to weak El Niño
1987-88 - from strong to moderate El Niño
1979-80  - increased to weak El Niño 
1968-69 - from moderate to weak El Niño
1967-68 - increased to weak La Niña
1956-57 - no longer La Niña
1951-52 - from moderate to weak El Niño 

There are now a total of 23 El Niño events since 1950; with 12 being "weak", 6 being "moderate", 3 "strong" and 2 "very strong".  Of the cool La Niña events, there is a total of 20; with 11 in the "weak" category, 5 "moderate" and 4 "strong".

These changes necessitated a reworking of several analyses of El Niño and precipitation.  These include El Niño / La Niña Winter Historic Precipitation & Temperatures  and Climatology of El Niño Events and California Precipitation.

Jan Null, CCM
Golden Gate Weather Services

The latest El Niño "plume forecast" for was released yesterday and it showed an even stronger event  for the upcoming winter and fall.  The mean forecast value of the 16 dynamic models peak at a "very strong" ONI value of 2.2 for the Oct-Nov-Dec (OND) period and then cools to 1.9 in DJF.


The average of the dynamic models has continued to get stronger with each successive model run.

Comparing the very strong El Niño event of 1997-98 with 2015 observed so far and the forecast.

These are the SST anomalies for July 15, 1997 and July 15, 2015.  The two big differences are the strength of the 1997 equatorial signal (stronger) and then the 2015 "warm blob" in the Gulf of Alaska being warmer the the positive anomaly of 1997.


The weekly SST values so far in 2015 compared to 1997, plus the forecast for the remainder of the year.


VERY IMPORTANT CAVEAT: All of the above only speaks to the SST anomalies and is NOT a precipitation forecast. As previously noted, there is large variance in the amount of California rainfall (and other impacts) even within a given ONI forecast category (i..e, weak, moderate, strong, very strong).  See the following:  http://ggweather.com/enso/ca_enso.htm , http://ggweather.com/enso/enso_myths.htm , http://ggweather.com/enso/calif_flood.htm and http://ggweather.com/enso.htm .

Jan Null, CCM
Golden Gate Weather Services
http://ggweather.com

In recent days there have been numerous reports of warmer than normal water along the California coast as well as an abundance of sharks, red crabs and dead marine life washing ashore. And in too many reports there has been at least an implied linkage to El Niño.  But the warmer than normal water associated with El Niño occurs in the tropical Pacific, about 2500 miles southwest of California.  Historically, the waters along the northern and central California coast have been above normal during only about half (55%) of the El Niño events since 1950, and 64% of the times in the Southern California coastal waters. (See #7 at http://ggweather.com/enso/enso_myths.htm )

It should also be noted that California coast waters were also well above normal last summer, long before the formation of the current El Niño. This warming is more likely associated with the "warm blob" in the northeast Pacific, which is likely a byproduct of the persistent ridging off the west coast that has been the prime factor in the ongoing drought.

To view historic Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies worldwide see http://ggweather.com/sst.htm. The clickable map is for the north Pacific but there is data for the entire globe via a pulldown menu. The data can also be displayed as a time series.  Thanks to Scott Archer of IPS Meteostar for his programming wizardry in helping make this data so easily accessible.


Jan Null, CCM
Golden Gate Weather Services

Today is the last day of the California rainfall season (July 1 to June 30) and as expected it was another dry year.  Most of northern California was between about 70% and 80% of normal, with central California having a wider range between 55% and 80%, and southern California mostly between 50% and 60%.  There were a few outliers in each category, primarily boosted by singular convective events.  

The important Sierra Nevada precipitation indices were equally low with 71% in the northern Sierra Nevada and less than 45% of normal in central and southern Sierra.  See http://ggweather.com/ca2014rain.htm. 





Jan Null, CCM
Golden Gate Weather Services