I’ve moved to WordPress. This post can now be found at NINO3.4 SST Anomalies Are Approaching 2 Deg C
################While the 2009/10 El Nino is still far from “Super El Nino” strength, NINO3.4 SST anomalies (OI.v2) for the week centered on December 23, 2009 have reached 1.94 deg C.
http://i50.tinypic.com/157byuf.pngWeekly NINO3.4 SST Anomalies
The increase is also visible in a .gif animation of the global SST anomalies for the last 4 weeks.
http://i46.tinypic.com/b7cn75.gifGlobal SST Anomaly Animation
Referring to the NOAA Equatorial Pacific Temperature Depth Anomaly Animation webpage…
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_update/wkxzteq.shtml
…more warm subsurface water may rise to the surface during this El Nino.
http://i50.tinypic.com/110y9ad.gifNOAA Equatorial Pacific Cross-Section - Temperature Anomaly Animation
Preliminary monthly NINO3.4 SST anomalies for December 2009 show an increase of 0.14 deg C to 1.81 deg C.
http://i50.tinypic.com/j5a0lu.pngPreliminary December 2009 NINO3.4 SST Anomalies
And the preliminary global SST anomalies for December 2009 are showing an increase of 0.03 deg C to 0.29 deg C.
http://i49.tinypic.com/2cct3zo.pngPreliminary December 2009 Global SST Anomalies
The preliminary monthly SST Anomalies are presented by the NOAA NOMADS webpage, but they will be updated over the next few weeks and will be finalized on January 11, 2010, according to the OI.v2 FAQ webpage:
http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/cmb/sst_analysis/FAQ.html
And for those wondering about the hotspot in the mid-to-high latitudes of central South Pacific, it is an area that is correlated with NINO3.4 SST anomalies. Refer to the following maps of time sequence of temperature anomaly correlations from Trenberth et al (2002) "Evolution of El Nino–Southern Oscillation and global atmospheric surface temperatures":http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/papers/2000JD000298.pdf
http://i47.tinypic.com/261e1lf.pngTrenberth et al (2002) Figure 8
SOURCE
OI.v2 SST data is available through the NOAA NOMADS webpage:
http://nomad3.ncep.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/pdisp_sst.sh?lite=
