C3S and Met Office data used as input for hybrid seasonal forecast in East Africa during the short rains

ERA5 reanalysis and ECMWF SEAS5 seasonal forecast are obtained from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), while HadISST data are obtained from the Met Office. The observational datasets ERA5 contains Total Precipitation Rate (TPR) for the October-December (OND) season and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) for both the OND season and the month of July. HadISST provides SST for the month of July, which is used as input for the CNN-based Dipole Index prediction.The ECMWF SEAS5 seasonal forecasting system provides TPR and SST for the OND season, with the run initialized in July at a three-month lead time.