Cold episode conditions have weakened considerably during the past few months (Tables T1, T2). This weakening is evident in: 1) a reduction of the sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies across the central and eastern tropical Pacific (Fig. T9), which have decreased from the -1.5° to -2°C anomalies observed earlier in the year; 2) a weakening of the low-level easterly winds over the western equatorial Pacific (Fig. T13 ); 3) a deepening of the oceanic thermocline across the east-central and eastern equatorial Pacific (Fig. T15 ); and 4) a return to near-normal values of the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), in association with the development of positive sea level pressure (SLP) anomalies over Indonesia and northern Australia (Fig. T2 ).

Nonetheless, the overall patterns during June are still consistent with ongoing cold episode conditions, although they are weaker than those observed earlier in 1999. For example, SSTs averaged between 0.5°C and 1.0°C below normal during June across most of the central and eastern tropical Pacific (Table T2, Fig. T18). Accompanying these conditions the oceanic thermocline remained shallower than normal throughout the east-central and eastern Pacific and deeper than normal in the west-central and western Pacific (Figs. T15 , T16). Consistent with this structure, equatorial ocean temperatures at thermocline depth were more than 3°C below normal in the central and eastern Pacific, and more than 2°C above-normal in the western Pacific (Fig. T17).

Tropical convection [as inferred from anomalous outgoing longwave radiation (OLR)] during June was suppressed across the western and central equatorial Pacific and enhanced across eastern Indonesia and the Philippines (Fig. T25 ). This pattern of tropical convection was accompanied by anomalous easterly winds at low-levels (850 hPa) over the western equatorial Pacific, where the maximum easterly anomalies averaged near 3 m s^-1. In contrast, the easterlies remained weaker than normal (westerly anomalies) over the eastern Pacific (Table T1 , Fig. T20). The Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) was -0.1 (Table T1, Fig. T1), and the equatorial SOI was 1.2 (Fig. T2) during June. Both of these values are similar to those observed during May.

In both hemispheres the upper-level atmospheric circulation during June reflected well-defined troughs over the low-latitudes of the mid-Pacific and amplified low-latitude ridges across Asia and the Indian Ocean (Fig. T22). This latter feature has persisted for several months, and during June was associated with easterly wind anomalies between 20°-30°N extending from the date line westward across northern Africa (Figs. T21).