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Where did that El Nino go? Wiped out by unprecedented cool shift?

The Australian weather bureau has never seen anything quite like it. The El Nino that was predicted for this summer down-under seems to be gone suddenly.

“Forecasters surprised by El Nino turnaround” [ABC]

The chief climate forecaster says it is the biggest turnaround in weather patterns since records began.

For climate forecasters, this summer was shaping up as deja vu, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting another El Nino – until Wednesday, that is.

The bureau’s manager of climate prediction services, Dr Andrew Watkins, has changed the forecast.

“Come September, all of a sudden, the temperature started to cool down, the trade winds started to become a little bit enhanced, and the cloud patterns and other indicators like that headed away from El Nino,” he said.

Dr Watkins says they are not sure why there has been a cooling down. “It actually is quite a unique situation if we end up not going into an El Nino event,” he said. “It’ll sort of be the biggest turnaround that we’ve actually seen in our records going back to about 1950, so quite unprecedented.”  [full story ABC]

Good news (possibly) for farmers with more normal levels of rain likely to fall. Though that which disappears on a whimsy, could reappear suddenly too I presume? In the end it shows how much we have yet to learn about the climate.

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h/t old friend Chris S-O. Thanks!

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