On the El Nino teleconnection to spring precipitation in Europe

In a statistical analysis of more than a century of data, a strong connecti on was found between strong warm El Nino winter events and high spring prec ipitation in a band from southern England eastwards into Asia. This relatio nship is an extension of the connection mentioned by Kiladis and Diaz (1989 . 'Global climatic anomalies associated with extremes in the Southern Oscil lation', J. Climate, 2, 1069-1090), and is much stronger than the winter se ason teleconnection that has been the subject of other studies. Correlation coefficients between December-January (DJF) NI (N) over tilde 3 indices an d March-May (MAM) precipitation are higher than r = 0.3 for individual stat ions, and as high as r = 0.49 for an index of precipitation anomalies aroun d 50 degrees N from 5 degrees W to 35 degrees E. The lagged correlation sug gests that southeast Asian surface temperature anomalies may act as interme diate variables. Copyright (C) 2000 Royal Meteorological Society.