Improving the reliability of long-range forecasts of natural disasters, such as severe weather, droughts and floods, in North America, South America, Africa and the Asian/Australasian monsoon regions is of vital importance to the livelihood of millions of people who are affected by these events. In recent years the significance of major short-term climatic variability, and events such as the El Nino/Southern Oscillation in the Pacific, with its worldwide effect on rainfall patterns, has been all to clearly demonstrated. Understanding and predicting the intra-seasonal variability (ISV) of the...