El Niño weakening in the Pacific

Following the prediction of an episode El Niño started in March 2023 (¹) and confirmed the following June (²), this climatic phenomenon of the Pacific Ocean, called ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation), strengthened until the end of December, early January 2024.

The February ENSO forecast developed by the U.S. Climate Prediction Center predicts that we are on the eve of an episode La Niña, even though the Pacific Ocean is still affected by the El Niño episode. According to the forecast, there is 79 % chance that El Niño will become neutral by April-June, and 55 % chance that the Pacific will return to ENSO La Niña between June and August.

Source : Tom Di Liberto – ENSO Blog / Climate.gov

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El Niño strengthens in the Pacific

El Niño continues to develop in tropical Pacific regions. Forecasters expect the phenomenon to continue until spring, with 75 down to 85 % likely to become an intense event. A stronger El Niño – the definition of which will follow – means that it is more likely that we will see its effects reflected in winter temperatures and rain and snow patterns around the world.

Source & screenshots : NOAA – Emily Becker freely translated. Read more …

El Niño is back

After three years of La Niña phenomenon (¹) in the tropical Pacific Ocean (from mid-2020 to mid-2023) having brought a fairly calm meteorological situation to Polynesia : regular trade winds, lack of hurricane, mainly dry weather, this idyllic situation will be reversed with the announced return (²) of the El Niño phase of the ENSO climate phenomenon (El Niño Southern Oscillation). Finally, idyllic, it wasn't for Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Melanesia and western Australia, which experienced episodes of intense rainfall well above normal and an upsurge in hurricanes during the same period. Read more …

The European Union is moving towards Open Data

 

Europe is moving forward slowly, but she moves forward… towards free access to data from public services ! March, the 21 December 2022 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, under the reference C/2022/9562, The " Regulations of the European Commission establishing a list of specific high-value datasets and the modalities of their publication and re-use". Read more …

Share GRIB files with Air Share [Update]

More and more of you have adopted the Iridium GO! for its easy way to request GRIB files, directly from Weather4D and some other applications. But some also want to transfer these files to a PC to import them into Windows software. (as you know, no one is perfect !). An easy solution is available : the messaging app Air Share, compatible iOS/iPadOS (¹). [Update 30 th 2022] Warning : the application has changed its identifier code on the AppStore. Read more …

ECMWF weather data soon open to public [3rd part]

Trafalgar Hit for the flagship of European meteorology, despite Brexit and contrary to what had been planned (¹), the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast will stay in England ! Even better, a new headquarter for ECMWF to be fully funded by the UK government through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Proof that the British have gone all out to keep this European scientific hotspot in Reading (²). Read more …

Are GRIB files systematically optimistic ?

I've been asked this question regularly, but until now I've never wanted to give my opinion on the subject publicly, so as not to offend anyone or create unnecessary controversy.. But after doing so many of my training courses, why not express it to me openly ?

My opinion, forged by observation and a long professional experience in pleasure boating (¹), is that this assertion of the systematic optimism of GRIB forecasts regarding wind strength, which unfortunately persists, no longer has any reason to exist, and has not been verified in practice for some time. Read more …