Oceans & climate · Sea-surface observations

A changing ocean

Warm water is not always unusually warm. Compare the temperature itself with its departure from the seasonal average.

Capture day · latest check

1 October 2026

Captured 12:29 UTC. Each product retains its own observation or issue date. This is a saved daily record, not a live warning service.

Ocean temperatures El Niño & La Niña

Capture date

The ocean surface

Loading map…2026-09-29 observation

Tap the map to inspect the nearest sampled ocean point.

Inspect a coordinate without the map

NOAA OISST v2.1 preliminary · anomalies relative to 1971–2000. Sampled every 2° from the 0.25° source grid; colours show a broad overview, not detailed coastal conditions. Dark cells are unsampled or missing, not zero. Download this capture

These dates describe different things: ocean observations are daily and arrive with a delay; the ENSO advisory and outlook are issued monthly, while RONI is a three-month mean updated monthly. We check for new source data hourly during the current UTC day. Previous revisions are retained and closed captures stay fixed.

Temperature ≠ anomaly

A tropical sea can be warm but close to its seasonal average. A cooler northern sea can be unusually warm for the date. The anomaly layer makes that difference visible.

Read the dates

These preliminary observations typically arrive after the day they describe. The date above the map is the observation date, while the page date records when we captured it. NOAA may later revise its analysis; this capture is retained.

The Pacific connection

The outlined Niño 3.4 region helps locate the part of the Pacific used in ENSO monitoring. A single daily map cannot establish El Niño or La Niña.

Explore the ENSO record ↗