'Seasonal Highlights' has been issued in PDF format since spring 2007 as a seasonal bulletin focusing on the seasonal highlights of the monitoring results. For monthly information, please refer to 'Monthly Highlights on the Climate System.'
Highlights in Spring (March 2024 - May 2024)
- Oceanic and atmospheric conditions over the equatorial Pacific indicate that the El Niño event which had persisted since boreal spring 2023 is likely to have ended (see El Niño Outlook updated on 10 June 2024).
- Seasonal mean temperatures were significantly above normal in northern/western Japan and Okinawa/Amami. Seasonal precipitation amounts were significantly above normal on the Sea of Japan side of western Japan, on the Pacific side of eastern/western Japan, and in Okinawa/Amami. Seasonal precipitation amounts on the Pacific side of western Japan were the largest records as the season since 1946.
- Convective activity was enhanced over the western Indian Ocean and to the south of New Guinea Island, and suppressed from the Bay of Bengal to the east of the Philippines.
- Corresponding to these convective activities, anti-cyclonic circulation anomalies in the lower troposphere were seen from South Asia to the east of the Philippines, effectively bringing humid air from eastern Japan to northern Southeast Asia.
- In the 500-hPa height field, a wavy anomaly pattern was seen from northern North America to Western Siberia. Zonally-elongated positive anomalies were dominant from south of Lake Baikal to the mid-latitude North Pacific including Japan. These atmospheric conditions resulted in significantly above normal temperatures over a wide area of East Asia including Japan.
The descriptions from Spring-2011 to Winter-2021 issue are based on the former climatological normal (1981-2010) unless otherwise stated.
In the descriptions until Winter-2011 issue, 1979-2004 average is used as climatological normal unless otherwise stated.
The descriptions until Autumn-2013 issue are based on the JRA-25/JCDAS datasets.
The descriptions from Winter-2014 to Winter-2023 issue are based on the JRA-55 reanalysis.
Figures and Tables
Notice: Products based on JRA-3Q were updated to those with improved quality in terms of tropical cyclone analysis. OLR-related products from January 1991 are based on NOAA CPC Blended OLR (CBO).
Notice: Figures of 'Atmospheric Circulation', 'Time Cross Section', and 'Indices' have been revised with improved quality data regarding tropical cyclone analysis. (18 June 2024)
Notice: Depending on the availability of NOAA CPC Blended OLR (CBO) data, updates may be delayed or figures may be filled with gray indicating data missing.
