The phrase "hiatus decades" refers to long periods of time where something, such as an activity or a trend, has been on pause or has not been happening. Full definition
- What worries me is whether this mechanism also works during previous hiatus decades (as the 1960s) or not. (realclimate.org)
The warm sea surface temperatures in the gyres, during hiatus decades, indicate convergence of near - surface currents and strong downwelling of heat. (realclimate.org)
Figure 4 - ocean heating rates for each ocean basin for hiatus decades (little or no warming) and all other decades in the climate model experiments carried out in Meehl (2011). (skepticalscience.com)