17 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). Figure 2: Exploratory analysis plots. A) The first empirical orthogonal function (EOF) ψ$_{1}$ : D$_{Y}$ → R for standardized anomalies of Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures is an indicator of El Ni˜ no events, during which sea surface temperatures are anomalously warm in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean tropics but anomalously cool in the western tropics (Ashok et al., 2007). EOF 1 accounts for 30% of the variability in sea surface temperatures. B) Pointwise correlations Cor$_{t}$ ( P ( s , t ) , a$_{1}$ ( t )) between Colorado precipitation P ( s , t ) and the EOF 1 score a$_{1}$ ( t ) suggest northern and western/central Colorado tends to receive less precipitation than average during El Ni˜ no events while eastern Colorado tends to receive more precipitation. Significant correlations (naive independent p-value < . 05) are highlighted, while non-significant correlations are faded slightly. REMOTE EFFECTS SPATIAL PROCESS MODELS