El Niño causes the Pacific jet stream to move south and spread further east. During winter, this leads to wetter conditions than usual in the Southern U.S. and warmer and drier conditions in the North. El Niño also has a strong effect on marine life off the Pacific coast.
Although El Niño has the most direct impacts on life in the equatorial Pacific, its effects propagate north and south along the coast of the Americas, affecting marine life all around the Pacific.
El Niño occurs when warm water builds up along the equator in the eastern Pacific. The warm ocean surface warms the atmosphere, which allows moisture-rich air to rise and develop into rainstorms. The clearest example of El Niño in this series of images is 1997.
Latin America * Central America, particularly Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, along with Haiti and southeastern Brazil, have recorded below average rainfall this year, while heavy rains have caused flooding in parts of Argentina, Guatemala and Peru.
Although El Niño's strongest impacts are felt around the equatorial Pacific, they can affect weather around the world by influencing high and low pressure systems, winds and precipitation. And as the warmer ocean waters release excess energy (heat) into the atmosphere, global temperatures rise.
An El Niño condition occurs when surface water in the equatorial Pacific becomes warmer than average and east winds blow weaker than normal. The opposite condition is called La Niña. During this phase of ENSO, the water is cooler than normal and the east winds are stronger. El Niños typically occur every 3 to 5 years.
During an El Niño event, sea surface temperatures across the Pacific can warm by 1–3°F or more for anything between a few months to two years. El Niño impacts weather systems around the globe, triggering predictable disruptions in temperature, rainfall and winds.
Correlation with El Nino Southern Oscillation is statistically significant for all summer rainfall areas. El Nino triggers drought and low streamflows and La Nina lead to high rainfall and high streamflows for all summer rainfall areas. Streamflows volumes are 4 to 2 time higher during La Nina than during El Nino.
Warmer or colder than average ocean temperatures in one part of the world can influence weather around the globe. Watch this Ocean Today video to see how this works.
During El Niño, trade winds weaken. Warm water is pushed back east, toward the west coast of the Americas.
La Niña means Little Girl in Spanish. La Niña is also sometimes called El Viejo, anti-El Niño, or simply "a cold event." La Niña has the opposite effect of El Niño. During La Niña events, trade winds are even stronger than usual, pushing more warm water toward Asia.
How ENSO impacts humans. El Niño, La Niña, and the neutral condition all produce important consequences for people and ecosystems across the globe. The interactions between the ocean and atmosphere alters weather around the world and can result in severe storms or mild weather, drought or flooding. Beyond “just” influencing ...
ENSO provides teachers with the opportunity to have students discover ways that the oceanic and atmospheric systems interact and how those interactions can impact ecosystems and human society. The resources in this collection can be used to help learn about the basics of ENSO, the inter-relationship of Earth systems, the consequences of these interactions, and how to use and analyze data. These resources can be used to teach students how scientists study the complexity of the Earth’s systems and why better El Niño/La Niña forecasts can benefit agriculture, natural resource managers and human communities.
Agriculture is of course very dependent on climate and weather, as a result ENSO’s influence on rainfall and temperature have important consequences for food production and availability.
El Nino Effects. El Nino results in the rise of sea surface temperatures. It also weakens the trade winds of the affected region. In India, Australia, it can bring about drought conditions. This affects the crop productivity largely.
El Nino can be understood as a natural phenomenon wherein the ocean temperatures rise especially in parts of the Pacific ocean. It is the nomenclature which is referred to for a periodic development along the coast of Peru. This development is a temporary replacement of the cold current along the coast of Peru. El Nino is a Spanish word.
The Oceanic Nino Index (ONI) is used to measure deviations from normal sea surface temperatures. The Oceanic Niño Index is a measure of the departure from normal sea surface temperature in the east-central Pacific Ocean, is the standard means by which each El Nino episode is determined, gauged, and forecast.
The Indian Ocean is warmer than the adjoining oceans and so, has relatively lower pressure.
Another natural phenomenon, similar to El Nino is La Nina, which is also in news these days. The term La Nina literally means ‘ little girl’. It is termed as opposite to the phenomenon of El Nino as it results in the ‘cooling’ of the ocean water in parts of the Pacific ocean.
It has been also observed certain times, that EL Nino may not bring drought but cause heavy rainfall. In both the cases, it causes heavy damage. However, in some other countries it may result in a complete reversal, i.e., excessive rainfall.
Near the end of each calendar year, ocean surface temperatures warm along the coasts of Ecuador and northern Peru. In the past, local residents referred to this annual warming as “El Nino,” meaning “The Child,” due to its appearance around the Christmas season. The appearance of El Nino signified the end of the fishing season and the arrival of the time for Peruvian fishermen to repair their nets and maintain their boats. Every two to seven years a much stronger warming appears along the west coast of South America, lasting for several months and often accompanied by heavy rainfall in the arid coastal regions of Ecuador and northern Peru. Over time the term El Nino began to be used in reference to these major warm episodes. During the 1960s, scientists began to link the abnormally warm waters along the west coast of South America with abnormally warm waters throughout the central and east-central equatorial Pacific. In addition, the warmer than average waters were shown to be closely related to a global atmospheric pressure oscillation known as the Southern Oscillation. The term El Nino refers to the coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon characterized by: 1 Abnormally warm sea surface temperatures from the date line (180W) east to the South American coast 2 Changes in the distribution of tropical rainfall from the eastern Indian Ocean east to the tropical Atlantic 3 Changes in sea level pressure throughout the global Tropics 4 Large-scale atmospheric circulation changes in the Tropics and portions of the extra-tropics in both hemispheres
El Nino and La Nina tend to alternate in an irregular cycle, which is often referred to as the ENSO cycle . El Nino episodes tend to: There is considerable event-to-event variability in the timing, intensity and evolution of both El Nino and La Nina.
Every two to seven years a much stronger warming appears along the west coast of South America, lasting for several months and often accompanied by heavy rainfall in the arid coastal regions of Ecuador and northern Peru. Over time the term El Nino began to be used in reference to these major warm episodes.
Near the end of each calendar year, ocean surface temperatures warm along the coasts of Ecuador and northern Peru. In the past, local residents referred to this annual warming as “El Nino,” meaning “The Child,” due to its appearance around the Christmas season. The appearance of El Nino signified the end of the fishing season and the arrival of the time for Peruvian fishermen to repair their nets and maintain their boats. Every two to seven years a much stronger warming appears along the west coast of South America, lasting for several months and often accompanied by heavy rainfall in the arid coastal regions of Ecuador and northern Peru. Over time the term El Nino began to be used in reference to these major warm episodes. During the 1960s, scientists began to link the abnormally warm waters along the west coast of South America with abnormally warm waters throughout the central and east-central equatorial Pacific. In addition, the warmer than average waters were shown to be closely related to a global atmospheric pressure oscillation known as the Southern Oscillation. The term El Nino refers to the coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon characterized by:
Snowfall is highly dependent on individual storms, which are only forecast days in advance. The current forecast shows higher probabilities for above normal temperatures for most of central and southeast Illinois, and higher probabilities for below normal precipitation.
When we notice different weather patterns, we usually think of what's in the air. But did you know that a lot of what happens in the air is because of the temperature of the oceans? El Niño is an abnormal weather pattern caused by the warming of the Pacific Ocean near the equator, off the coast of South America.
Along the Pacific coast of the Americas, El Niño can cause severe storms and flooding. Peru and Ecuador usually receive the brunt of the force of El Niño. During the months of April - October, this area experiences increased rain fall. El Niño's effects are not only felt through rain.
This is because of the following reasons (and its effects): Off the coast of Peru (read in Eastern Pacific and Central Pacific), there is normally cool surface water because of the cold Peruvian current.
El Nino and La Nina episodes typically last nine to 12 months, but some prolonged events may last for years. They often begin to form between June and August, reach peak strength between December and April, and then decay between May and July of the following year.
There are a lot of factors which affect its duration and intensity over India. The Monsoon is basically a result of the flow of moisture laden winds because of the variation of temperature across the Indian Ocean. There are a number of climatic phenomena which affect it namely the Indian ocean dipole, El nino, La nina, ...
The warm water causes lots of clouds getting formed in that area, causing heavy rains in Peruvian desert during El Niño years. This robs the Indian subcontinent of its share in the Monsoon rains. The greater the temperature and pressure difference, the greater would be the shortage in the rainfall in India.
These phenomena affect the temperature distribution over the oceans and thus affecting the direction and intensity of flow of the moisture laden winds. There have been recent reports that El ...
The Indian Ocean is slightly warmer than the adjoining oceans (West pacific –see diagram) and thus the pressure is low relatively due to the warm seas. This is why the moisture laden winds move from near the west pacific to the Indian Ocean and from there on to the lands.
There have been recent reports that El Nino may disturb the Indian Monsoon and play badly with Indian agriculture. This brings us to the discussion of the concepts of El Nino and La Nina. In what follows we will look at their origin, mechanism, impact and mitigation strategies.