Pacific Climate Overview – 2005

• Main Authors: S. Rodionov, J. Overl, N. Bond
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bering Sea; Gulf of Alaska; Pacific; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.124.7803; http://www.beringclimate.noaa.gov/reports/np_05.pdf

Summary. The winter of 2005 was characterized by atmospheric circulation anomalies that little resembled leading teleconnection modes. There was a weak El Niño event, but it had either a minor or atypical impact on the North Pacific. The PDO index was positive, suggesting that the climate regime established since the late 1970s still continues, but the distribution of sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Pacific did not closely correspond with the PDO loading pattern. The characteristic features of this distribution were a warm water pool in the east-central North Pacific and patchiness of SST anomalies elsewhere. The SST-based Victoria pattern, after being in its positive phase during 1999-2004, showed a sign of reversal in 2005. It was not consistent, however, with its atmospheric counterpart, a north-south dipole in sea level pressure (SLP). Instead, the anomalous SLP in 2005 featured an east-west dipole consisting of a negative anomaly centered along 170˚W from 40˚N into the Bering Sea, and a positive anomaly in the eastern Pacific from 40˚N into the Gulf of Alaska. This combination brought about southerly wind anomalies and an enhancement of cyclonic activity for the Bering Sea shelf, and a suppression of storminess in the eastern North Pacific.