EL-NINO IN THE 1990S

The evolution of the unusual warming events of the first half of the 1 990s is discussed based on the National Center for Environmental Predi ction ocean re-analysis data, covering 1980-1995. The warmings occurri ng in 1991-1992, 1993, and 1994 are viewed as individual episodes, rat her than as one long El Nino. It is shown that the warm episodes of th e 1990s differ from previous El Ninos in two important ways. First, su bsurface anomalies are more strongly coupled to the mixed layer across the equatorial Pacific in the 1990s than in earlier years. Second, a persistent warm SST anomaly in the central Pacific has been instrument al in initiating warm events. Both of these factors interfere with the dominant mode of variability in the tropical Pacific air-sea system, namely the delayed oscillator mechanism. We postulate that the low ski ll of dynamical atmosphere-ocean models in predicting the recent warmi ngs is related to a weakened delayed oscillator mechanism.