Buresh Blog: El Nino advisory, Mars weather station

Feb. 20, 2019 — NOAA has officially declared the El Nino underway (advisory).  In other words, the criteria has been met which is warmer than avg. water temps. by at least 0.5 degrees C (0.9 degrees F) for five consecutive 3- month overlapping periods near the equatorial Pacific.  However, the warming is just barely 0.5 degrees C & is not met across the entier ENSO region so this is a weak El Nino.

Forecast models predict the El Nino to slowly wane into the summer.

Since the El Nino is weak, global weather implications are not as strong nor as consistent as would occur with a stronger El Nino.  But still some wetter than average conditions can be expected from California eastward along the Gulf Coast into spring.  The weak El Nino will not likely be a significant factor during the upcoming hurricane season.  El Nino winters are often relatively mild but this one - 2018-'19 - has been downright warm despite the late Jan. arctic outbreak & especially warm for Jacksonville & much of the Southeast U.S. Image below courtesy SERCC:

Speaking of which.... I've posted - with the help of the creative Nora Clark from the Action News Jax digital team - a podcast from my recent visit to ground zero, hurricane Michael - go ** here **.... ** here ** for pics & details in the "Buresh Blog".

Meanwhile.... we can get a daily weather report on Mars!.... thanks to NASA's InSight lander which has two weather sensors on each side - for wind & temp.  Mars' weather is harsh to say the least with recent temperatures reaching highs near zero but lows as cold as 140 degrees below zero F! Images below from NASA/JPL-Caltech:

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