Global Highlights:

• Based on preliminary data for April 2004, global average combined land and sea surface temperature was third warmest on record
• April temperatures were above average throughout Scandinavia, the western United States, Alaska and India, with below average temperatures in the southern U.S., western Russia and the Carribean
• Precipitation during April was above average across the southern Great Plains of the U.S., western Europe and the United Kingdom with drier than average conditions across Japan, coastal Brazil and the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.
• Near-normal SSTs across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific basin are indicative of neutral ENSO conditions.

Contents of this Section:

• Introduction
• Global Temperatures
• Global Precipitation
• ENSO SST Analysis

Introduction

Temperature Rankings and Graphics

Precipitation

ENSO SST Analysis

• Sea surface temperatures were again near-normal over much of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific (as shown in the adjacent animation of weekly sea surface temperature anomalies). A consensus of indices suggest neutral ENSO conditions. A comprehensive summary of April 2004 ENSO conditions can be found on the ENSO monitoring page. For the latest advisory on ENSO conditions go to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) and the CPC ENSO Diagnostic Discussion
  
  
• Images of sea surface temperature conditions are available for all months to date during 2004 at the weekly SST page

Peterson, T.C. and R.S. Vose, 1997: An Overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network Database. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 78, 2837-2849.