PROGNOSTIC DISCUSSION FOR LONG-LEAD HAWAIIAN OUTLOOKS NWS CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER COLLEGE PARK MD 830AM EST THU DEC 15 2016 MONTHLY FORECAST DISCUSSION VALID JANUARY 2017 SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE (SST) ANOMALIES SURROUNDING THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS ARE CURRENTLY NEAR ZERO, WITH SOME POCKETS SLIGHTLY ABOVE AVERAGE AND SOME SLIGHTLY BELOW AVERAGE. FROM JANUARY 2016 THROUGH THE END OF NOVEMBER 2016, RAINFALL TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS WERE: - LIHUE AIRPORT 12.22 INCHES (38 PERCENT OF NORMAL) - HONOLULU AIRPORT 12.29 INCHES (89 PERCENT OF NORMAL) - KAHULUI AIRPORT 12.26 INCHES (85 PERCENT OF NORMAL) - HILO AIRPORT 108.03 INCHES (94 PERCENT OF NORMAL) THE NCEP CLIMATE FORECAST SYSTEM (CFS) AND OTHER CLIMATE MODELS RUN AS A PART OF THE NORTH AMERICAN MULTI-MODEL ENSEMBLE (NMME) PREDICT NEAR TO ABOVE NORMAL SSTS AROUND THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. THIS SLIGHTLY ELEVATES THE CHANCES OF ABOVE-NORMAL MONTHLY MEAN AIR TEMPERATURES FOR THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS IN JANUARY 2017. ENHANCED PROBABILITIES FOR ABOVE-MEDIAN PRECIPITATION ARE ALSO INDICATED BY MODEL FORECASTS FOR HAWAII DURING JANUARY 2017. THE ODDS DECREASE FROM SOUTH TO NORTH, WITH LITTLE TO NO PRECIPITATION SIGNAL OVER THE NORTHERNMOST ISLANDS. TEMPERATURE PRECIPITATION FCST AVE LIM FCST BLW MEDIAN ABV HILO A50 71.6 0.5 A40 3.1 8.9 11.8 KAHULUI A50 72.1 0.6 A40 1.2 2.3 2.8 HONOLULU A50 73.3 0.5 A40 0.7 1.1 2.1 LIHUE A50 71.8 0.7 EC 1.3 2.2 4.8 SEASONAL FORECAST DISCUSSION VALID JFM 2017 - JFM 2018 REFER TO THE PROGNOSTIC DISCUSSION ON LONG-LEAD SEASONAL OUTLOOKS FOR THE CONUS AND ALASKA, DISCUSSION OF THE FORECASTS OF EQUATORIAL PACIFIC SSTS, AND THE GENERAL BACKGROUND FOR THE SEASONAL FORECAST, INCLUDING DETAILS ON THE CURRENT STATE OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN. CURRENTLY BOTH OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ANOMALIES INDICATE THE PRESENCE OF LA NINA CONDITIONS. NEGATIVE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE (SST) ANOMALIES IN EARLY DECEMBER STRETCHED ACROSS MOST OF THE EASTERN AND CENTRAL EQUATORIAL PACIFIC OCEAN. THE LATEST WEEKLY VALUE OF THE NINO 3.4 INDEX IS -0.6C. THE UPPER-OCEAN HEAT CONTENT ALSO REMAINED BELOW AVERAGE DURING NOVEMBER, AS REFLECTED IN BELOW-AVERAGE TEMPERATURES AT DEPTH TO 150M. CONVECTION WAS SUPPRESSED OVER THE CENTRAL TROPICAL PACIFIC AND ENHANCED OVER PORTIONS OF INDONESIA, ALTHOUGH THE SIGNAL WAS INTERRUPTED BY SUBSEASONAL VARIABILITY. LOW-LEVEL EASTERLY WINDS WERE ENHANCED WEST OF THE INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE. ANOMALOUSLY WESTERLY UPPER-LEVEL WINDS WERE MEASURED FROM 160E TO 160W, STRADDLING THE INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE. LA NINA CONDITIONS ARE PRESENT, WITH A TRANSITION TO ENSO-NEUTRAL CONDITIONS DURING JFM 2017. BOTH DYNAMICAL AND STATISTICAL TOOLS PREDICT ABOVE-NORMAL TEMPERATURES FOR HAWAII FROM JFM 2017 TO AMJ 2017 DUE TO PERSISTENT ANOMALOUSLY ABOVE-NORMAL SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES ACROSS THE REGION. SOME STATISTICAL TOOLS INDICATE LOWER CHANCES FOR ABOVE-NORMAL TEMPERATURES DURING THE SPRING OF 2017. EQUAL CHANCES (EC) FOR ABOVE, NEAR, OR BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES ARE ANTICIPATED AT ALL LOCATIONS FOR MJJ 2017 AND BEYOND. DYNAMICAL TOOLS FAVOR ABOVE MEDIAN PRECIPITATION FOR HAWAII FROM JFM 2017 TO MAM 2017 WITH HIGHER PROBABILITIES FOR WINDWARD EXPOSED LOCATIONS (LIHUE AND HILO) IN THE WINTER PERIOD. LATER IN THE YEAR, THE SIGNALS FOR ABOVE MEDIAN PRECIPITATION DIMINISH FROM SOUTH TO NORTH, TO ONLY LIHUE MAINTAINS A SIGNAL THROUGH AMJ. EQUAL CHANCES (EC) FOR ABOVE, NEAR, OR BELOW MEDIAN PRECIPITATION ARE INDICATED FOR HAWAII IN MJJ 2017 AND LONGER LEADS. HILO TEMPERATURE PRECIPITATION FCST AVE LIM FCST BLW MEDIAN ABV JFM 2017 A65 71.8 0.4 A50 22.0 32.0 44.5 FMA 2017 A60 71.7 0.4 A50 24.6 34.1 45.5 MAM 2017 A50 72.0 0.5 A40 22.5 28.4 34.0 AMJ 2017 A40 72.9 0.5 EC 21.4 23.7 29.0 MJJ 2017 EC 74.0 0.4 EC 20.2 27.5 29.1 JJA 2017 EC 75.2 0.4 EC 19.4 27.2 31.4 JAS 2017 EC 76.1 0.4 EC 25.2 28.6 33.4 ASO 2017 EC 76.4 0.4 EC 26.1 28.8 33.3 SON 2017 EC 76.2 0.4 EC 24.3 30.2 40.8 OND 2017 EC 75.5 0.4 EC 28.3 34.5 42.0 NDJ 2017 EC 74.2 0.4 EC 26.4 36.6 43.0 DJF 2018 EC 72.8 0.4 EC 19.6 30.2 33.3 JFM 2018 EC 71.8 0.4 EC 22.0 32.0 44.5 KAHULUI TEMPERATURE PRECIPITATION FCST AVE LIM FCST BLW MEDIAN ABV JFM 2017 A65 72.5 0.4 A40 4.2 6.2 8.2 FMA 2017 A60 72.3 0.4 A40 3.2 4.1 6.4 MAM 2017 A50 73.0 0.4 A40 2.5 3.5 4.6 AMJ 2017 A40 74.3 0.5 EC 1.2 1.6 2.2 MJJ 2017 EC 76.0 0.5 EC 0.7 1.1 1.8 JJA 2017 EC 77.7 0.4 EC 0.7 1.1 1.5 JAS 2017 EC 79.0 0.4 EC 0.8 1.1 1.6 ASO 2017 EC 79.4 0.4 EC 0.8 1.6 2.5 SON 2017 EC 79.1 0.4 EC 2.1 3.3 4.8 OND 2017 EC 77.8 0.4 EC 4.2 5.3 8.1 NDJ 2017 EC 75.9 0.4 EC 5.2 7.6 9.5 DJF 2018 EC 73.8 0.4 EC 4.6 6.9 8.7 JFM 2018 EC 72.5 0.4 EC 4.2 6.2 8.2 HONOLULU TEMPERATURE PRECIPITATION FCST AVE LIM FCST BLW MEDIAN ABV JFM 2017 A65 73.9 0.4 A40 2.1 4.6 7.8 FMA 2017 A60 73.8 0.4 A40 1.9 3.2 4.7 MAM 2017 A50 74.8 0.4 A40 1.8 2.6 3.0 AMJ 2017 A40 76.3 0.4 EC 1.2 1.6 1.8 MJJ 2017 EC 78.2 0.4 EC 0.8 1.4 1.6 JJA 2017 EC 79.9 0.4 EC 0.7 0.8 1.3 JAS 2017 EC 81.3 0.4 EC 1.0 1.4 1.7 ASO 2017 EC 81.7 0.4 EC 1.6 2.4 3.1 SON 2017 EC 81.4 0.4 EC 2.5 4.0 5.6 OND 2017 EC 80.0 0.4 EC 4.4 6.4 8.5 NDJ 2017 EC 77.7 0.5 EC 3.9 5.6 8.8 DJF 2018 EC 75.3 0.5 EC 3.7 5.6 8.6 JFM 2018 EC 73.9 0.4 EC 2.1 4.6 7.8 LIHUE TEMPERATURE PRECIPITATION FCST AVE LIM FCST BLW MEDIAN ABV JFM 2017 A65 72.2 0.4 A50 6.5 8.8 13.8 FMA 2017 A60 72.1 0.5 A50 5.8 8.4 9.9 MAM 2017 A50 72.8 0.5 A40 5.3 6.6 8.0 AMJ 2017 A40 74.2 0.5 A40 4.7 5.5 6.0 MJJ 2017 EC 76.0 0.5 EC 4.9 5.4 5.9 JJA 2017 EC 77.7 0.4 EC 4.4 5.3 6.9 JAS 2017 EC 79.0 0.3 EC 5.3 6.1 7.8 ASO 2017 EC 79.4 0.3 EC 6.2 7.9 8.4 SON 2017 EC 79.1 0.3 EC 9.2 10.0 11.2 OND 2017 EC 77.8 0.3 EC 9.2 11.7 15.6 NDJ 2017 EC 75.7 0.3 EC 8.6 12.1 16.9 DJF 2018 EC 73.6 0.4 EC 7.5 8.4 14.0 JFM 2018 EC 72.2 0.4 EC 6.5 8.8 13.8 FORECASTER: CPC FORECASTER ANOMALIES BASED ON 1981-2010 MEANS CLARIFICATION: EC INDICATES EQUAL CHANCES THAT THE CLIMATE WILL FALL INTO ANY ONE OF THE THREE RANGES OR CATEGORIES WHOSE BOUNDARIES ARE SPECIFIED IN THE TABLES ABOVE. A FORECAST SPECIFICATION OF EC MEANS THERE IS NO PARTICULAR TILT OF THE ODDS TOWARD ABOVE-NORMAL OR BELOW-NORMAL CONDITIONS IN THE OUTLOOK. FOR EXAMPLE A40 MEANS A 40% CHANCE THAT TEMPERATURE OR PRECIPITATION WILL BE IN THE ABOVE CLASS, B40 MEANS A 40% PROBABILITY THAT TEMPERATURE OR PRECIPITATION WILL BE IN THE BELOW CLASS, AND N35 MEANS A 35% PROBABILITY THAT TEMPERATURE OR PRECIPITATION WILL BE IN THE NEAR-NORMAL CLASS. WHEN EC IS SPECIFIED, ALL CATEGORIES ARE EQUALLY LIKELY. NOTE - THESE OUTLOOKS ARE INTENDED FOR USE PRIOR TO THE START OF THEIR VALID PERIODS. WITHIN ANY VALID PERIOD OBSERVATIONS AND SHORTER RANGE FORECASTS SHOULD BE CONSULTED. ALSO - THIS SET OF OUTLOOKS WILL BE SUPERSEDED BY THE ISSUANCE OF THE NEW SET NEXT MONTH ON THU JAN 19, 2017. $$