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NOAA
2007-009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Carmeyia Gillis 2/27/07 |
NOAA
News Releases 2007 NOAA Home Page NOAA Office of Communications |
On the heels of El Niño, its opposite, La Niña may soon arrive. In a weekly update, scientists at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center noted that as the 2006-2007 El Niño faded, surface and subsurface ocean temperatures have rapidly decreased. Recently, cooler-than-normal water temperatures have developed at the surface in the east-central equatorial Pacific, indicating a possible transition to La Niña conditions. Typically, during the U.S. spring and summer months, La Niña conditions do not significantly impact overall inland temperature and precipitation patterns, however, La Niña episodes often do have an effect on Atlantic and Pacific hurricane activity. “Although other scientific factors affect the frequency of hurricanes, there tends to be a greater-than-normal number of Atlantic hurricanes and fewer-than-normal number of eastern Pacific hurricanes during La Niña events,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “During the winter, usual La Niña impacts include drier and warmer-than-average conditions over the southern United States. “NOAA's ability to detect and monitor the formation, duration and strength of El Niño and La Niña events is enhanced by continuous improvements in satellite and buoy observations in the equatorial Pacific,” Lautenbacher added. “These observing systems include the TAO/TRITON moored and Argo drift buoys, as well as NOAA's polar orbiting satellites.” La Niña conditions occur when ocean surface temperatures in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific become cooler than normal. These changes affect tropical rainfall patterns and atmospheric winds over the Pacific Ocean, which influence the patterns of rainfall and temperatures in many areas worldwide. “La Niña events sometimes follow on the heels of El Niño conditions,” said Dr. Vernon Kousky, research meteorologist at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. “It is a naturally occurring phenomenon that can last up to three years. La Niña episodes tend to develop during March-June, reach peak intensity during December-February, and then weaken during the following March-May. “The last lengthy La Niña event was 1998-2001, which contributed to serious drought conditions in many sections of the western U.S.,” said Douglas Lecomte, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center drought specialist. NOAA
will issue the U.S. Spring Outlook on March 15, and its Atlantic Hurricane
Season Outlook in May. Both outlooks will reflect the most current
La Niña forecast. NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA. 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 the 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 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects. On the Web: Weekly
Updates & Diagnostic Discussions Climate
Prediction Center’s ENSO Page |
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