Teleconnections - Interactive ENSO Rainfall Map
Gridded phase-composite rainfall indicators on an interactive globe. Drag to rotate · Scroll to zoom · Click a country to drill down.
What am I looking at?
A teleconnection is the tendency for El Niño or La Niña in the Pacific to shift weather far away. Each map shows, for the chosen ENSO phase and season, how a rainfall, drought or heat indicator typically departs from normal - built by compositing every past event of that phase. Set the source, season, phase and hazard above: blue/green areas are wetter or cooler than usual, brown/red drier or hotter.
That chain is a teleconnection - how a shift in the Pacific reaches regions far away. The maps below show step 3 for the phase and season you choose.
New here? Leave Source on its default, pick a Hazard and a Season, and read the colour. Every term below is explained in plain words on the Guide.
Where the maps come from. They use rainfall that actually fell (CHIRPS) and observed weather for heat (ERA5), plus a climate model run many times (CESM2) that fills in where the real record has too few strong events for a clear map.
What each hazard shows. Wet is the heaviest 10-day rainfall (RX10day), a flood-risk sign. Drought is the longest run of dry days (CDD). Heat stress uses WBGT, a "feels-like" heat number combining temperature and humidity (high means dangerous heat for the body), and UTCI, a similar comfort index.
Anomaly vs absolute. "Anomaly" is the difference from normal (ENSO-neutral years), so it shows just the El Niño / La Niña effect. "Absolute" is the raw value during that phase.
Reading dry regions. Over near-rainless places such as the Sahara or Arabian Peninsula, a rainfall change is mostly noise, so treat colour over deserts with caution. Dots mark places where fewer than 60% of past events agreed on the direction of the change.
Forecast × Impact Signal
Current SEAS5 forecast probabilities weighted by historical ENSO impact direction for the selected region and season.
| Lead | Valid month | Most likely phase | Phase prob. | Historical impact signal | Action signal |
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