Is this a La Niña or El Niño year? Try La Nada

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http://grist.org/news/is-this-a-la-nina-or-el-nino-year-try-la-nada/

Meteorologists base a lot of their long-term weather projections on temperatures in the globally influential Pacific Ocean. But for more than a year the world’s most expansive ocean has been devoid of its famed El Niño and La Niña patterns — anomalously higher-than-average or lower-than-average bands of sea-surface water that help govern major weather events.

For now, the Pacific is stuck in a stubborn La Nada state: near-normal surface height and temperatures. Scientists say it could last into the spring, but that’s not so unusual: La Nada rules the Pacific about half the time. But it makes life difficult for weather forecasters, and it threatens to ignite unpredictably extreme weather. From NASA:

“Without an El Niño or La Niña signal present, other, less predictable, climatic factors will govern fall, winter and spring weather conditions,” said climatologist Bill Patzert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Long-range forecasts are most successful during El Niño and La Niña episodes. The “in between” ocean state, La Nada, is the dominant condition, and is frustrating for long-range forecasters. It’s like driving without a decent road map — it makes forecasting difficult.”

Patzert noted that some of the wettest and driest winters occur during La Nada periods.

[Ghost Dog]

1. Please allow me to also recommend (Spanish language):

http://www.cazatormentas.net/index.php/noticias-de-meteorologia-mainmenu-2/61-noticias-sobre-huracanes-ciclones-y-tifones/3524-humberto-primer-huracan-de-la-temporada-de-huracanes-2013-en-el-atlantico-norte.html

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2. there's no hat tipping smilie -- so just imagine i am tipping my chapeau. nt

[Ghost Dog]

3. Mmmm. Hmmm... Further to the above (same source): HUMBERTO

[xchrom]

4. i was reading about humberto this morning.

and how it showed no decrease in strength today.

[Ghost Dog]

5. I'm sitting here looking out to sea. More rain, heavy clouds accumulating...

I can feel it, out there, what, 200 nautical miles away...

Ok. Looks perfect. Give us some rain, and send the pain directly towards... uh, (the 10% in) Washington.

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6. !

a regular gully washer.

[Ghost Dog]

7. .

[Ghost Dog]

8. ... I meant to say, the 'top' 10% in Washington.

Last edited Thu Sep 12, 2013, 12:47 PM - Edit history (1)

The rest of us should be en pie revolucionaria, ya.