raindancewx

Probably (Definitely?) won't get a 968 mb low out of it this time, but October was wetter than September again in Albuquerque. That has always preceded measurable precipitation in October back to 1931 (37/37 cases), including last year. Odds are always much better for a big wet March when October is wetter than September.

We've pulled ahead of the late/fake El Ninos now too. October looks nothing like 2012 for instance. Weaker than last year. North Pacific still neutral for the PDO zone. That cold water by Peru in October tends to rot away the warmth right along the coast of West Canada, as we've seen. Also, sunspots for the year ending October are down to 4.2 - still lower than the comparable time in the last cycle (year ending Oct 2008). The 12-month low last cycle was 2.2. Whether we go lower than that or not, I'd say its 50/50 we hit the 12-month low point of this cycle in the next six months.

Coldest October here since 1986 - 55.4F, around 2.5F below the past 100 years. https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/ocean/index/heat_content_index.txt I actually couldn't get a good match on the Aug/Sept/Oct subsurface data this time - it kind of looks a blend of 1991 (big major warm up below the surface in October), but colder. Something like 1991, 1992, 1993 as a blend is kind of close, but still not great, for how it is behaving. The issue with the subsurface matching is that the subsurface was slightly cold in August, neutral (exactly 0) in September, and then very warm in October - that doesn't really exist in the data in a single year. You have to blend like crazy to get it. Subsurface data came in at +0.7 for 100-180W in October. That's always translated to an official El Nino since the subsurface data has been available in 1979. It's below last year, when the subsurface was +1.58 in October. The subsurface in October 2014 and other actual El Ninos was somewhat cooler than in October 2019. If you plug in +0.7 along the line, it implies a 27.1C El Nino, give or take about 0.6C, around 80% certainty (32/40) for the last 40 years.

Cold mornings have arrived in greater frequency than my analogs depicted. Blending year with coldest October low is pretty predictive for number of lows <=32F here for the total of <=32F nights: I get 109, +/-24 using the last 30-years for the confidence interval, and 109, +/-27 using the last 90-years. Either way, anything above 118 would be most in lifetime. We finished with 97 last year, but only through 11/15. Looks like like we'll be at seven through 11/1.

The new Canadian run looks a bit more El Nino-y, especially north of the equator. Tropical Tidbits fixed its climatology (baseline for averages) so these maps work again. It has a warm US look. The move toward more precip in the SW is likely an indicator that it is starting to sense the warm Nino 3.4 The model doesn't have any long range seasonal skill at this range for winter. This is last year (warmest where it was coldest on Nov 1, 2018) The October forecast (cold West / warm South) from 9/30 was pretty good. The Oct 31 forecast for November has this - and its not dissimilar to the CFS or my November analogs. A -NAO favors a warm West in November. Most of my top winters are 0-2F above normal in November.

SOI should finish around -5 or -6 for October. 1951 is a top Aug-Oct match, which makes sense given that it looks like October. SOI Aug Sept Oct 2019 -3.1 -12.7 -5.0 1946 -4.0 -13.3 -12.3 1969 -4.0 -10.0 -11.6 1990 -4.4 -7.3 -1.2 1951 -5.2 -11.2 -12.3 1987 -13.1 -10.6 -5.3 1972 -8.2 -14.1 -11.0 1972-73 is essentially the best physically possible pattern for the West, will be watching to see if it remains a strong match into November..

Since 1950, these are the Octobers with 27.0-27.6 Nino 3.4 monthly readings, since it looks like we finish with Nino 3.4 at 27.3C. Oct 3.4 1951 27.20 1957 27.42 1963 27.36 1969 27.34 1976 27.46 1977 27.35 1986 27.53 1991 27.58 1994 27.47 2003 27.14 2004 27.44 2006 27.41 2009 27.60 2012 26.98 2014 27.16 Of these, 1951 is easily closest to highs across the US. Then 1969 (right in the West but too cold in the South - no help moving the high from Camille?). 2004 and 1994 aren't super far off either (neither is last year, at 27.62C). 1957, 1976, 2006, 2009 are too cold. 1963, 1977, 1991, 2003, 2012, 2014 are kind of opposite, and a lot of the other years are just off in various ways. The El Ninos with the lowest annualized solar activity are 1953-54, 2009-10 and 2018-19 - very different winters, but we'll see. It's probably not great for a cold December in the East that Oct 1963 is relatively opposite of Oct 2019 nationally - I think the MJO must have gotten stuck in a warm phase back then, and Dec 1963 was the second coldest Eastern December since 1950. I think maybe compared to 1963, the MJO is off by 6-weeks, and compared to 2013, it's off by four weeks but we'll see. For highs locally, for June-Oct, 1948 is the closest match since 1931 - very hot July-Sept sandwiched between a cold June & October. I wouldn't even mention this normally, but that year went to ridiculous, stupid cold in the West in January, kind of like the recent pattern...but in January and for a much longer period than the recent cold snap. I'll be watching for that. I sincerely doubt January 1949 will come to fruition. But I keep expecting a more recent year to replace 1948 as the best match to highs and it hasn't happened yet. 1948 keeps building its lead over every other year back to 1931.

It's like magic. I had this map in my forecast from 10/10 (see page 14). https://t.co/1yr0fAbUKK?amp=1 Now look at what the CFS has for November 2019. The CFS actually has decent skill for the coming month just before it start Also, this looks like an El Nino on the CFS now. Levi fixed his Canadian climatology issue so the Canadian update should be interesting on Halloween (I'll be here to avoid the record cold).

From the NWS ABQ Office: ...RECORD COLD THIS WEEK ACROSS NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NEW MEXICO... ...WINTRY WEATHER IMPACTING MUCH OF EASTERN NEW MEXICO TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY... Unseasonable to record breaking cold temperatures will dominate northern and central New Mexico this week, as northerly upper winds reinforce a modified Arctic airmass in place over the region. Much of the northeast third of the state will see near record to record low temperatures tonight, including Santa Fe, Las Vegas, Raton, Clayton and Tucumcari. Other locales will see overnight low temperatures 5-15 degrees colder than normal for late October. Highs Tuesday will warm over today`s readings but it will get even colder Tuesday night and Wednesday as another modified Arctic blast surges into New Mexico on gusty north winds. Wednesday`s highs will be 25-40 degrees colder than normal, with highs ranging from the 20s and 30s east and north to mostly 40s southwest. In addition to the cold, freezing drizzle, freezing fog and light snow will develop over the east Tuesday night and Wednesday. This includes the Interstate 40 corridor from Clines Corners to the Texas border, Interstate 25 from Glorieta Pass to Raton Pass, and U.S. 64 from Raton to Capulin. While ice and snow accumulations are expected to be minimal, the travel impacts will be hazardous. Wednesday night will feature mid winter like temperatures, with near record to record lows ranging from around 20 degrees below zero to the single digits above zero across most of the north with teens south. Wind chill readings across north central and northeast New Mexico will vary from near zero to about 30 degrees below zero.

Nino1+2 Nino3 Nino34 Nino4 Week SST SSTA SST SSTA SST SSTA SST SSTA 25SEP2019 20.0-0.5 24.8-0.1 27.2 0.5 29.7 1.1 02OCT2019 20.0-0.6 25.1 0.3 27.2 0.5 29.7 1.0 09OCT2019 19.7-1.0 24.8-0.1 27.1 0.4 29.5 0.9 16OCT2019 20.6-0.2 25.3 0.4 27.5 0.8 29.7 1.1 23OCT2019 19.7-1.3 25.0 0.1 27.3 0.6 29.7 1.0 Subsurface heat is up again on the ENSO weekly PDF. Five weeks in a row of El Nino level heat in Nino 3.4. CPC uses 26.75C as the baseline, and Nino 3.4 is around 27.3C. Nino 1.2 is around 20.0C for October on the weeklies. I don't think the monthly number will be that low for Nino 1.2 - but if it comes in under 20.0C that is a strong indicator since 1950 that the PDO will finish below 0 for Nov-Apr (17/18 cases). Definitely less basin wide than last year and 2014-15 so far. Nino 3.4 and Nino 4 are actually warmer than 2014 now for what its worth, since Oct 2014 came in at 27.16C in Nino 3.4. 26SEP2018 20.2-0.3 25.5 0.6 27.3 0.6 29.3 0.6 03OCT2018 21.3 0.7 25.6 0.7 27.4 0.7 29.5 0.8 10OCT2018 21.1 0.4 25.6 0.7 27.3 0.6 29.5 0.9 17OCT2018 21.1 0.3 25.9 1.0 27.6 0.9 29.6 0.9 24OCT2018 21.3 0.3 25.9 1.0 27.7 1.1 29.8 1.1 24SEP2014 21.2 0.8 25.4 0.5 27.1 0.4 29.3 0.6 01OCT2014 21.7 1.1 25.4 0.5 27.1 0.3 29.2 0.5 08OCT2014 21.3 0.6 25.5 0.6 27.1 0.4 29.1 0.5 15OCT2014 21.5 0.7 25.5 0.5 27.2 0.5 29.4 0.7 22OCT2014 21.8 0.8 25.8 0.8 27.2 0.5 29.4 0.7

I keep seeing people referencing 2013 as an analog because of the blob, but the pattern nationally really is closer in the East so far to 2018 than to 2013, which to me implies it isn't much of a factor due to differences in the PDO structure. That light blue area should end up very close to Mexico by the end of October 2019, but the issue with both years is they were too cold in the SW and too warm in the NW. Nino 3.4 readings will be similar in October 2014 and 2019, but the US pattern is completely different. The strongest response for US temps to winter from the PDO are in the NW US and SE US. So the very cold NW / very warm SE October has some resemblance to a -PDO for Winter 2019-20, while the very warm NW / relatively cold SE in 2014 has some resemblance to what would become the super positive PDO winter of 2014-15, when the PDO was +2.07 for Nov-Apr (sort of the PDO equivalent of a Super El Nino). The October 2014 'cold' spot is right where the deep purples are for the winter correlation.

January 1952 is like +7F in the SE, with December/February not much better. I don't think 1951-52 will hold up real well outside Fall though. Nino 4 is much warmer than in 1951, and like you said, the PDO crashed hard to well below 0 by December 1951, which is correlated to strong winter heat for the South. In Fall/Spring, I generally weight the PDO/AMO higher, with the prior year ONI, solar, and some other things less. As solar/ONI prior and the others become more important, 1951 should fall of as a match. I looked earlier - the best October matches to this October in an El Nino since 1930 are: 1939, 1941, 1951, 1969, 1994. Something like 2014 is relatively opposite, with places in the Northwest out by close to 20 degrees compared to what has happened this October, despite similar Nino 3.4 temps.

The warmth is still moving East. Really not that different from last year. Main difference is there is more cold water around this year.

October 1951 is honestly shockingly close to October 2019 for temperatures nationally - one of the best single year analog matches I've seen in a few years. Oct 1951 was a 27.2C El Nino in Nino 3.4, but it was an East-based El Nino by this point. In the West, the cold should actually push further South than 1951 by the end of the month. Areas near the Mexican border in New Mexico will be 25-30F outside the cities tomorrow morning - very cold for October that far south at fairly low elevations.

Snow in Santa Fe...low 50s in Albuquerque today. Amazing how sharp the cut offs can be in Fall and Spring systems that don't quite dive far enough south.

Last year behaved like Neutral PDO El Nino, which dumps cold in the West and Plains typically. I use 0, +/-0.5 for Nov-Apr, for the PDO as that designation. The composite is basically the same post 1950 (kind of looks like this October which is interesting). Box C (the waters by the Philippines) in the Modoki calculation is fairly strongly correlated to colder Western winters, and that zone has been relatively cold compared to recent years. Low solar El Ninos also tend to be less reliably "back-loaded" for the East in February - look at February 1931, 1954, 1964, 1966, 1977, 1987, 1995, 2007, 2010, 2019 - definitely a variety there compared to the high solar El Nino February years. Our high terrain never stopped being cold this year, a lot of the populated towns still had frosts in June, July and August. At this point, things look at least somewhat promising for the West. Here are some pictures from New Mexico today - Angel Fire Ski Resort Red River -

My analogs had some incredible cold pushes in the West and Plains in November, despite relatively bland departures overall. A big -NAO is correlated to a warm West in November generally but you can get big snow events in the Rockies despite an overall warm November. Conceptually, the "anti-logs" to the features this year, a cold Atlantic, cold North Pacific, weak La Nina, after a weak La Nina, both in high solar, with an active Monsoon in the SW ahead of winter...is something like 1967 or 1971. If you look at October 2019 and then October 1967 and October 1971, they are both opposite of 2019 in their own way. In 1967, the core heat/cold is East/West backwards v. 2019 in October, even though it is roughly at the right latitudes. Winter 1967-68 "flipped" for being east-west backwards actually looks fairly close to what I forecast for winter. In 1971, the cold core is in the SW, and the heat core is in the NE. In 2019, the cold core is in the NW, and the heat core is in the SE. So it is North/South opposite. Winter 1971-72 flipped "North-South backwards" actually also looks fairly close to what I forecast for winter.

I couldn't get it to work at my office either. It is a link to Scribd, so maybe it is blocked? I think some have been able to see it. It is free. But I may do some subscription stuff at some point. I have a big collection of strong predictors for each region of the US now, and I've done statistical work on how they should be weighted for different seasons, and to account for the Earth warming somewhat, as well as solar stuff. For instance, in the Southwest, solar activity is a meaningful precipitation variable for Spring/Fall, but not really for winter. But in winter it does correlate for temperatures, when filtered by ENSO, and it gets stronger at certain elevations for whatever reason. https://www.scribd.com/document/429712619/Winter-2019-20-Outlook I want to be clear here: There are some El Ninos when I would go huge for snowfall in New England and the Northeast generally. I don't mean 20-50% above average, I mean double average generally, up to x3 or x4 locally - but they're rare. The blend you want is high solar, El Nino, but El Nino Modoki. 2014, 2002, 1991, 1977, 1969, 1968, 1957 all fit some extent. For what it's worth...1951-52 is an El Nino and remarkably close to October 2019 so far. It's kind of a weird borderline El Nino like this will be, which is interesting. I didn't use it as analog though. 1994 is actually pretty close in the West, and 2018 isn't too dissimilar either in October, its just the heat/cold are nudged out of place compared to 2019. Some of the El Ninos in the 1930s and 1940s aren't terrible matches to 2019 either for what its worth. If you're in the East, you do not want the 1951-52 winter if you like snow and cold.

Good start after a quiet October in New Mexico outside of one major rain event in SE NM very early in the month.

2004 is probably a good analog to November. If I had done Fall analogs, 1994, 2004, 2012, 2017, 2018 as a blend would have been pretty good. But I don't really see it lasting into winter. All the components are there - MJO matches 1994, 2004, 2018. The cool east is there with 2017 included. The temperature profile in the US looks like where Oct 2019 is going. The PDO is neutral. The IOD is positive. The coolness east of South America is there, with the gulf stream very warm off the East Coast. It's relatively low solar too. 2014 doesn't exactly look like 2019 in October...despite somewhat similar MJO progression...it makes sense since 2014 was a basin-wide El Nino in October. Only off by 10 or 20 degrees in the NW...but you know New England is destined to see snowmaggedon again. 2004 isn't as different in October as 2019, but it's still kind of north/south backwards, just a 2014 v. 2019 is east/west backwards.

Bye bye Modoki? Nino 1.2 has warmed up above 20.0C - so the PDO likely will remain positive, at least slightly for Nov-Apr. El Nino development is around a month slower than last year so far. But October Nino 3.4 reading is up to about 27.3C now. That's El Nino level, even using the 26.75C CPC uses for October as Neutral. Subsurface warmth is up again too. It looks like the subsurface heat for 100-180W could be around +0.6 or +0.7 - that is similar to October 2004 & October 2014. Nino1+2 Nino3 Nino34 Nino4 Week SST SSTA SST SSTA SST SSTA SST SSTA 25SEP2019 20.0-0.5 24.8-0.1 27.2 0.5 29.7 1.1 02OCT2019 20.0-0.6 25.1 0.3 27.2 0.5 29.7 1.0 09OCT2019 19.7-1.0 24.8-0.1 27.1 0.4 29.5 0.9 16OCT2019 20.6-0.2 25.3 0.4 27.5 0.8 29.7 1.1 26SEP2018 20.2-0.3 25.5 0.6 27.3 0.6 29.3 0.6 03OCT2018 21.3 0.7 25.6 0.7 27.4 0.7 29.5 0.8 10OCT2018 21.1 0.4 25.6 0.7 27.3 0.6 29.5 0.9 17OCT2018 21.1 0.3 25.9 1.0 27.6 0.9 29.6 0.9

It's not exact, but in some ways we're about a month behind the development of the El Nino last year. The cold by South America was mostly defeated by this point last year. But...it was still there in September 2018. The Oct 2019 pattern by South America looks a bit like the blend of Sept/Oct 2018.

Large area of +1C to +2C heat has filled into Nino 3.4 during the last month. With the surface readings over 27.0C in October...that's enough for Nino 3.4 to stay warm for a while. The cold in Nino 3 (90W-150W) is just about gone now too, although Nino 1.2 is still going to take a while to warm (maybe til December).

Pretty sure the IOD was positive last year too by Fall anyway, although not as much as this year. The Jamstec has it falling off later. The main thing with the IOD is it is a way to keep relatively high pressure over Australia, which helps the SOI stay negative or neutral.