U.S., Canada, & Mexico Agree on El Nino Definition

The U.S. National Weather Service, the Meteorological Service of Canada and the National Meteorological Service of Mexico have reached a consensus on an index and definitions for El Niño and La Niña events! In case you're curious, the El Niño definition is, "A phenomenon in the equatorial Pacific Ocean characterized by a positive sea surface temperature departure from normal (for the 1971-2000 base period) in the Niño 3.4 region (120W-170W, 5N-5S) greater than or equal in magnitude to 0.5 degrees C, averaged over three consecutive months."