SST Anomalies -- June 9, 1998 Noting today on our SST anomaly WebSite [SSTA] that SSTs along the Equator west of 120W longitude are markedly colder than normal...BY AS MUCH AS -4 to -5 deg C!! This cooling has taken place rapidly during the past 30 days. Over most of 1998, sub-surface temperatures [see TAO Buoy data] have continued showing a strengthening and shoaling of the thermocline along the Equator, that began off Australia, finally has arrived just west of Galapagos and is now easily available at the surface [upwelling] with just the slightest wind. Timing is not quite the same as in 1988, but SST conditions around the Northern Hemisphere have some interesting similarities for that "La Nina" year.....hmmmmmm. Three of four NOAA touted models are forecasting the cold-phase of ENSO, apparently developing, to persist into 1999. Although the intensity of the '97-98 El Nino appears to have shattered what had been called the "granddaddy" of all El Nino's for this Century, the winding down of the '82-83 event does not appear to have any similarities to what is transpiring now. AES