NOAA Claims: ‘Elusive El Niño arrives’ – the question is, ‘where’?

As I written in my comment below:

El Niño????
Where and when?

I guess: The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind…..

Watts Up With That?

When I got this press release from NOAA a few minutes ago, the first thing I did was check the NOAA NESDIS sea surface temperature map for the tell-tale El Niño pattern signature, because NOAA didn’t include any SST graphic in the press release. I sure don’t see an El Niño pattern in today’s SST product.Now, compare today’s product to the one from August 27th, 2009, when there actually was an El Niño, something they reference in the press release.

Source: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/sst/anomaly/2009/anomnight.8.27.2009.gif

Seems like a reach to me, especially when the report referenced in the PR says:

Overall, these features are consistent with borderline, weak El Niño conditions.

Update: Confusion anyone? AP’s Seth Borenstein got this quote from the NOAA staffer quoted in the PR and tweeted it:

@afreedma Halpert acknowledges: "What we've learned from this event is that our definition is very confusing and we need to work on…

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