Contact: Pat Viets                                      6/26/98

A B-roll video animation that shows the cooling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean is available from Video Transfer, 5709-B Arundel Avenue, Rockville, Md., telephone: 301-881-0270. The video, produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration using data from NOAA's weather satellites, shows sea surface temperatures for the period from April 4, 1998, to June 13, 1998.

La Nina features colder than normal sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean. La Nina often implies drier than normal conditions in the Southwest in late summer, the Southwest and central Plains in the fall and the Southwest and Southeast in the winter. The Pacific Northwest is more likely to be wetter than normal in the late fall and early winter with the presence of a well-established La Nina. Additionally, on average La Nina winters are warmer than normal in the Southeast and colder than normal in the Northwest.