RE: pdo
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It is difficult for us to untangle how much decadal variability impacts ENSO from month-to-month, so it is hard to say either way. Also, when monthly Pacific Decadal Oscillation Indices are calculated, we find that much of that variability is due to ENSO. In other words, on shorter timescales, it likely that much of what you see in the North Pacific SST pattern is caused by ENSO (not the other way around).
We hope to have a future blog post on this topic in the coming months, so stay tuned.