Weekly Tropical Climate Note

[Mark]

Issued on Tuesday 3 April 2012

The end of La Niña

The 2011–12 La Niña event has ended, with indices returning to neutral (neither El Niño nor La Niña) levels. Neutral conditions are likely to persist until at least mid-year.

The sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly in the NINO3.4 region (located in the central tropical Pacific) is currently –0.2 ºC. The 30-day Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) to 1 April is +1.8. The contributing atmospheric pressures were 0.8 hPa below normal at Tahiti and 1.3 hPa below normal at Darwin. The monthly SOI for March was +2.9.

The northern Australian wet season and the Australian tropical cyclone season are both nearing their end, officially ending on 30 April.  Eight tropical cyclones have been identified in the Australian region since the beginning of the cyclone season on 1 October.

See the Bureau's ENSO Wrap-Up which includes a compilation of ENSO computer model predictions.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/tropnote/tropnote.shtml

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