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by sea surface temperatures that are anomalously warm in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean tropics but anomalously cool in the western tropics. The first empirical orthogonal function (EOF; i.e., principal component) ψ$_{1}$ : D$_{Y}$ →$_{R}$ for Pacific Ocean sea surface temper- ature anomalies illustrates this pattern (Figure 2). Pointwise correlations Cor$_{t}$ ( a$_{1}$ ( t ) , P ( s , t )) between the ENSO teleconnection’s strength a$_{1}$ ( t ) and Colorado precipitation P ( s , t ) pro- vide standard evidence for teleconnection, suggesting northern and western/central Colorado tend to receive significantly less precipitation than average during ENSO events, which are periods of strong El Ni˜ no activity, while plains regions bordering eastern Colorado tend to receive significantly more precipitation than average (Figure 2). 

