El Nino Watch

SST anomaly

How much warmer (+) or cooler (-) the sea surface is than its 1991-2020 normal for that date, in °C.

Indices

An SST anomaly is the sea surface temperature minus its normal for that place and date (see Anomaly). Maps of SST anomaly make El Nino easy to see: a long red tongue of warm anomalies along the equator in the eastern Pacific.

How to read it

Red/orange = warmer than normal, blue = cooler, white or pale = near normal. On the Indices page, values above +0.5 in the Nino regions indicate El Nino-like warmth.

Sources

Related

ENSO status now

ONI (NOAA CPC)
+1.80 °C, JJA 2026 (previous +1.39 °C)
RONI (NOAA CPC)
+1.36 °C, JJA 2026
Nino 3.4 weekly (NOAA CPC / OISST)
+3.0 °C anomaly, week of 16 Sep 2026 (SST 29.6 °C)