El Niño By: Bridget Donohoo

What is El Nino? Means “Little Boy” or “Christ Child” in Spanish. Usually begins off the coast of Peru during Christmas time or the beginning of the year. Disruption of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific Ocean.

What is El Nino? Occurs when easterly winds die down, allowing for warmer waters kept in the western P. Ocean to drift towards the Americas. Massive pool of warm seawater is half as large as the United States, or 20 to 30 times as much water as all of the Great Lakes put together. Usually occurs every two to seven years.

What is La Nina? La Nina is the opposite of El Nino, which creates cold temperatures instead of warm.

What are the Affects of El Nino? Rain, flooding, and drought (increased rainfall across the southern part of US) Brings warm winters to northern and Midwestern US. Reduces number of strong hurricanes that form over Atlantic Ocean.

What is an example of the effects of El Nino? The 1997-1998 El Nino brought violent storms to the coast of California, causing beach erosion, landslides, and floods. It also brought floods to Texas and other southern states. Northern Atlantic hurricanes were destroyed.

Can El Nino Be Stopped? Even if we wanted to, changing El Nino would be extremely hard. “It is important to remember that El Nino is not the only climate fluctuation that is occurring…So it would not be simple to figure out how to modify the ocean temperatures to get the changes we wanted, even if we had the technological means.”—William S. Kessler, oceanographer from the NOAA

What Is Happening Now? Equatorial surface temperatures were warmer than average throughout most of the Pacific Ocean during October 2003, but not significant enough to have El Nino conditions.

Summary Instead of trying to defeat El Nino, scientists are working to learn more about it in order to predict it and its effects better. These predictions will make it easier for people in parts of the world where El Nino has harmful effects (S. America, Australia, Western US) to plan for events and cope with them.

Sources Used Climate Prediction Center. “ENSO Diagnostic Discussion.” www.cpc.noaa.gov. 6 November 2003. Hoover, Mark; NOVA Online. “Origins—Ground Zero.” www.pbs.org. November 2000. Tarbuck, Edward J. and Frederick K. Lutgens. Earth Science: 10th Ed. Patrick Lynch, Pearson Education, Inc: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2003. 484-489. USAToday.com. “FAQ: El Nino and La Nina.” www.usatoday.com. 5 May 2003. U.S. Department of Commerce-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “What is an El Nino?” www.elnino.noaa.gov. 2002.