Caribbean Climate Variability

The climate in the Caribbean is influenced by the dynamic atmosphere-ocean teleconnections and feedback mechanisms that occur mainly across the Atlantic and Pacific. These take place on seasonal, interannual, decadal and multi-decadal temporal scales. Here are some of the main climate indices that are important for climate variability within the Caribbean. Data is provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Climate Variables

El Nino Southern Oscillation
ENSO
This mode describes the averaged zonal anomalies in the tropical Eastern Tropical Pacific sea surface temperature 5N-5S,150W-90W.
Western Hemisphere Warm Pool
WHWP
This mode represents the monthly anomaly of ocean surface area warmer than 28.5° C in the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific, relative to the 1971-2000 climatology.
Atlantic Meridional Mode
AMM
This mode, similar to ENSO, describes the meridional atmosphere-ocean variabilIty in the tropical Atlantic Ocean, represented by sea surface temperature differences between the North and South Tropical Atlantic.
North Altantic Oscillation
NAO
This mode is traditionally defined as the normalized pressure difference between a station on the Azores and one on Iceland. It is one of the major modes of variability of the Northern Hemisphere atmosphere.
Caribbean Index
CAR
This mode represents timeseries of sea surface temperature anomalies averaged over the the Caribbean. Data is obtained from the NOAA ERSST V3b dataset. Anomalies were calculated relative to the 1981-2010 climatology.
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