• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

RealClimate

Climate science from climate scientists...

  • Start here
  • Model-Observation Comparisons
  • Miscellaneous Climate Graphics
  • Surface temperature graphics
You are here: Home / Extras / Glossary / North Atlantic Oscillation (“NAO”)

North Atlantic Oscillation (“NAO”)

28 Nov 2004 by group

Translations: (Français) (English)
Français English

Measure of the strength of the westerlies across the North Atlantic. Originally defined by Sir Gilbert Walker in 1932 as the difference in pressure between Ponta Delgada on the Azores and Stykkisholmur in Iceland. More information on the NAO can be found here. See also Arctic Oscillation (“AO”).

Filed Under: Glossary

Primary Sidebar

Search

Search for:

Email Notification

get new posts sent to you automatically (free)
Loading

Recent Posts

  • Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • The most recent climate status
  • Unforced variations: May 2025
  • Unforced Variations: Apr 2025
  • WMO: Update on 2023/4 Anomalies

Our Books

Book covers
This list of books since 2005 (in reverse chronological order) that we have been involved in, accompanied by the publisher’s official description, and some comments of independent reviewers of the work.
All Books >>

Recent Comments

  • E. Schaffer on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barton Paul Levenson on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barton Paul Levenson on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Barton Paul Levenson on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barry E Finch on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barry E Finch on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barry E Finch on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • CherylJosie on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Paul Pukite (@whut) on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Pedro Prieto on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Kevin McKinney on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Pedro Prieto on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Pedro Prieto on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • CherylJosie on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Pedro Prieto on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Pedro Prieto on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time

Footer

ABOUT

  • About
  • Translations
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Page
  • Login

DATA AND GRAPHICS

  • Data Sources
  • Model-Observation Comparisons
  • Surface temperature graphics
  • Miscellaneous Climate Graphics

INDEX

  • Acronym index
  • Index
  • Archives
  • Contributors

Realclimate Stats

1,367 posts

11 pages

244,124 comments

Copyright © 2025 · RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists.