'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.'
Notice: From 19 May 2021 onward, the products in this page are based on the new climatological normal (1991-2020 average) unless otherwise stated.
Highlights in Winter (December 2022 - February 2023)
- La Niña event, which had persisted since boreal autumn 2021, is likely to have ended (see El Niño Outlook updated on 10 March 2023).
- Seasonal mean temperatures were above normal in Okinawa/Amami and below normal in northern Japan.
- Seasonal mean temperatures were extremely high in southeastern Europe, in the eastern USA, and in the southern part of South America.
- Convective activity was enhanced from the eastern Indian Ocean to near Southeast Asia, and suppressed near the date line in the equatorial Pacific.
- In the 500-hPa height field, the polar vortex in the Northern Hemisphere split with negative anomalies from Eastern Siberia to the northern part of East Asia.
- The subtropical jet stream shifted northward from its normal position from eastern Eurasia to the seas east of Japan. The polar-front jet stream meandered southward near Central to Eastern Siberia and meandered northward near the Bering Sea.
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.
