Rainfall Shortage and El Niño–Southern Oscillation in New Caledonia, Southwestern Pacific

Abstract

About three months after the beginning of an El Niño/Southem Oscillation (ENSO) year, a rainfall shortage develops over all of New Caledonia (21"S, 165"E) and lasts for 12 months. There is, on the average, a 22% decrease over the mean monthly rainfalls for one year. This result is based on the study of a rainfall composite and of a composite obtained from the first empirical orthogonal function (EOF) extracting more than half of the variance over 30 years of measurement at 18 stations. I ' 394.

Subseasonal-to-interannual variability of rainfall over New Caledonia (SW Pacific)

“…On interannual timescales, the relationships between NC rainfall and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are the subject of numerous studies (Delcroix and Lenormand 1997;Fischer et al 2004; Morlière and Rébert 1986;Nicet and Delcroix 2000). ENSO events also play a role in anomalous shift and/or intensity of the SPCZ, which can impact NC rainfall anomalies.…”

The archaic and puzzling record of Lake Xere Wapo, New Caledonia

“…The average annual rainfall for the region is around 3000 mm yr -1 , with the warmest and wettest months being from December to April and the driest from August to November. Annual rainfall is also highly variable and years of rainfall shortage are linked to the El Niño -Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon (Morliere and Rebert 1986).…”

Reconstructing twentieth‐century sea surface temperature variability in the southwest Pacific: A replication study using multiple coral Sr/Ca records from New Caledonia

“…[4] New Caledonia (20°00 0 -22°30 0 S, 163°30 0 -167°30 0 E) is located in the southwest tropical Pacific Ocean (Figure 1) and has a tropical climate influenced by the annual variations in latitude of the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) to the north and the subtropical anticyclonic belt to the south [Morliere and Rebert, 1986;Pesin et al, 1995]. New Caledonia experiences warm wet summers (January to March), when the SPCZ is in its southernmost location and cool dry winters (July to September) when the SPCZ is in its northernmost location [Morliere and Rebert, 1986;Pesin et al, 1995].…”

“…New Caledonia experiences warm wet summers (January to March), when the SPCZ is in its southernmost location and cool dry winters (July to September) when the SPCZ is in its northernmost location [Morliere and Rebert, 1986;Pesin et al, 1995].…”