EI Niño/La Niña Status

Updated on 09 Jul 2018

The sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical Pacific Ocean were within neutral values in June 2018 over the Nino3.4 region (Figure A). Likewise, most of the atmospheric indicators of El Niño/La Niña were indicating neutral conditions. The 1-month Nino3.4 value for June 2018 was +0.1 and the 3-month (April to June 2018) average Nino3.4 was zero (Figure B).

Models indicate that the tropical Pacific Ocean SST anomalies will continue to warm (Figure C) but are more likely to remain neutral for the July-September season in-progress (Figure D). Some models indicate the possibility of a weak and late 2018 El Niño developing, with a higher risk of occurrence from the October-December season onwards.

Impact of El Niño/La Niña on Singapore

Singapore would normally experience drier and warmer conditions during El Niño events, especially during the Southwest Monsoon period (June – September), including October (Figure E and Figure F). The opposite, i.e. wetter conditions over Singapore, usually occurs during La Niña events. Outside this season, the impact of El Niño/La Niña is less significant for Singapore. For example during the Northeast Monsoon season (December to early March), the impact on rainfall from El Niño/La Niña is less pronounced (Figure E and Figure F).

No two El Niño events or two La Niña events are alike in terms of their impact on Singapore’s rainfall and temperature. Furthermore, the strength of events and the corresponding impact do not always scale. For example, there were years where relatively weaker El Niño/La Niña events had more impact on rainfall during the Southwest Monsoon season than the stronger events, but this could be contributed by other factors as well (Figure G).

For El Niño/La Niña updates, information provided by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and various international climate centres are assessed. The centres include the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) US, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) Australia, as well information from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) which consolidates model outputs from various other centres around the world.

Figure A: Sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies for June 2018 with respect to 1981-2010 climatology. Warm shades show regions of relative warming, while cool shades show regions of relative cooling. The tropical Pacific Ocean Nino3.4 region (solid red box, 120°W-170°W and 5°S-5°N) was close to zero. The western Indian Ocean, WTIO (solid black box, 50°E-70°E and 10°S-10°N) was slightly warmer compared to the south-eastern Indian Ocean, SETIO (dotted black box, 90°E-110°E and 10°S-0°N), thus the Indian Ocean Dipole Mode index (WTIO minus SETIO) was still within neutral values. Data source: ERSSTv4 from NOAA.

Figure B: The Nino3.4 index using the three-month running means of SST anomalies (against 1981-2010 base period) in the Nino3.4 region bounded by 5°N to 5°S and 170°W to 120°W. Warm anomalies (≥ +0.5) correspond to El Niño conditions while cold anomalies (≤ -0.5) correspond to La Niña conditions; otherwise neutral (> -0.5 and < +0.5). The horizontal axis is labelled with the first letters of the 3-month seasons, e.g. JFM refers to January, February, and March seasonal average. Data source: ERSSTv4 from NOAA.
Figure C: Forecasts of Nino3.4 index’s strength for second half of 2018 and early 2019 from various seasonal prediction models of international climate centres. Values above +0.5°C indicate El Niño conditions, below -0.5°C indicate La Niña conditions, and in between indicate neutral conditions, i.e. neither El Niño nor La Niña. Models predict the Nino3.4 index to be within neutral values in the July-September season in-progress and with a range of possible outcomes by year’s end including weak, late El Niño developing (image credit: IRI-CPC).

Figure D: Probability of El Niño (red), La Niña (blue) and neutral conditions (grey) for 2018. Neutral conditions are likely for the July-September 2018 season in-progress until later in 2018 when El Niño conditions are slightly more favoured (image credit: IRI-CPC).

Figure E: Correlation between total monthly rainfall (averaged over 28 Singapore stations) and Nino3.4 index from 1980-2013. It shows statistically significant (red) negative correlations between local rainfall and Nino3.4 in July, September, and October, which suggest that warmer temperatures in the Nino3.4 region lead to significantly less rainfall over Singapore and vice versa. In other months, where the correlations are weaker or insignificant, the relationship is not as established.

Figure F: Correlation between total seasonal rainfall (averaged over 28 Singapore stations) and seasonal Nino3.4 index (also known as Oceanic Niño Index, ONI) from 1980-2013. It shows statistically significant (red) negative correlations between local rainfall and the ONI during JAS and ASO, which suggest that warmer temperatures in the Nino3.4 region lead to significantly less rainfall over Singapore and vice versa during these seasons. In other seasons, where the correlations are weaker or insignificant, the relationship is not as established.

Figure G: Singapore rainfall anomalies for June-September (as a percentage of departure from long-term rainfall average) arranged in the order from strong La Niña (left) to strong El Niño (right). Warm shades denote El Niño years, cool shades denote La Niña years (La Niña is the opposite of El Niño), and white denotes neutral years. WL, ML, and SL refer to weak, moderate, and strong La Niña respectively, while WE, ME, and SE refer to weak, moderate, and strong El Niño respectively.