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What happens during an El Nino?
During an El Niño event, the surface waters in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean become significantly warmer than usual. It also reduces the upwelling of cooler, nutrient-rich waters from the deep—shutting down or reversing ocean currents along the equator and along the west coast of South and Central America.
What is El Nino and its effect?
El Niño can affect our weather significantly. 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.
What is El Nino and why is it important?
El Niño—which means “the little boy” or “the Christ child” in Spanish—is part of the most influential natural climate pattern on the Earth, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, usually referred to as ENSO. This warming of the ocean causes major changes to typical global atmospheric circulation patterns.
What causes El Ninos?
An El Niño condition occurs when surface water in the equatorial Pacific becomes warmer than average and east winds blow weaker than normal. 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.
Why El Niño occurs?
How does El Niño work?
How Does El Niño Work? In normal years, the winds tend to blow from east to west across the waters of the tropical Pacific. During El Niño years, the winds weaken, causing the upwelling of deep water to cease. The consequent warming of the ocean surface further weakens the winds and strengthens El Niño.
What is El Nino and what does it do?
Definition of ‘El Nino’. El Nino, means ‘little boy’ in Spanish. It is a weather system which re-emerges after a gap of about two to five years in the Pacific Ocean and its effects last for about 12 months on an average. El Nino leads to warming of sea surface temperatures, which in turn affects wind patterns and triggers both floods…
What are some interesting facts about El Nino?
El Nino Facts. El Nino is a climate pattern that causes extreme weather conditions. El Nino occurs when there is large-scale warming of the surface of the Pacific Ocean , which can cause droughts, floods and even fishing and agriculture issues as its warm waters move east.
What is El Nino and what are its effects?
The Effects of El Nino. El Nino’s distinctive red stripe of warmth at the equator. El Nino impacts the planet in two related ways. The first has to do with the way it influences weather patterns by altering the oceans and atmosphere, while the second relates to how those changes affect our property, food, water and health.
How does El Nino impact the world?
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,…