El Niño and La Niña
Latest status (March 2019)

The central and eastern equatorial Pacific were persistently warmer than normal (by 0.5°C or more) in the last five months and the sum of sea surface temperature anomalies exceeded 4.0°C. An El Niño event has been established. Based on the latest oceanic observations as well as forecasts by a number of climate models around the world, the El Niño is expected to persist through this spring and summer.

Figure 1    Sea surface temperature anomalies of 17 February – 16 March 2019 in degree Celsius.