Forecast

Issue Notes - Issued Oct 13

ENSO status: Neutral, however six of seven models suggest La Niña thresholds will be met again between November and January. IOD status: Negative, neutral levels predicted from late spring. SAM status: Near neutral, forecast to be mostly positive from October to December. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is currently neutral. However, Over the past few months, sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean have been getting abnormally cool. This oceanic cooling has also been accompanied by a response in the atmosphere, which has included trade winds strengthening over the central and western Pacific Ocean in the last few weeks. Both the atmosphere and the ocean are now showing clear signs of being in a La Niña-like pattern and a number of forecast models suggest that this trend will continue in the months ahead. All seven climate models predict La Nina Thresholds to be met in November, while six of the seven suggest it will last through to January and four toFebruary. La Niña typically brings above average rainfall in northern and eastern Australia. The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is currently weakly negative, however climate models predict the return to neutral phase by late spring. A negative IOD generates above average rain to southern and eastern Australia. As such, average to above average rainfall is predicted across much of the country this winter and the remainder of spring.