0
El Nino and La Nina
El Nino and La Nina are opposite phases of ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation), a coupled ocean-atmosphere oscillation in the Tropical Pacific Ocean that exerts an influence on weather throughout much of the world. Being an oscillation, it moves between these two phases every few years, triggered initially by changes in the atmospheric circulation with ocean temperature changes following. It is measured by the Southern Oscillation Index, which compares surface pressures at Tahiti and Darwin, Australia.
500 Questions
What was one result of El nino that occurred in 1997 and 1998?
Asked by Wiki User
El Nino in 1997-1998 was such a big deal in the US, because of the rainfall amount during that time. The cities received between 15 inches and 80 inches of rain.
Does a el nino occur every 2 to 12 years?
Asked by Wiki User
It occurs every 3 to 7 years.
the correct answer is true trust me i put false and got it wrongWhat are the trade winds of EL Nino?
Asked by Wiki User
When El Nino occurs the trade winds tend to weaken. Also water from the western Pacific moves to the Eastern Pacific.
How long does el nino last?
Asked by Wiki User
El Nino is quasi-periodic and its duration will vary. Typically it will remain in one mode (El Nino is the warm phase, La Nina the cool) for at least 9 months persisting to up to two years.
What is expected to happen during La Nina?
Asked by Wiki User
There is unusually low air pressure over the western tropical pacific.
What country does El Nino affect most?
Asked by Wiki User
El nino is a weather pattern that can negatively impact the weather of the areas it affects. El nino typically impacts Mexico and the United States. The part of the world impacted is the Northern and Western Hemispheres.
How does El Nino effect Michigan?
Asked by Wiki User
The greatest impact is above normal precipitation in the winter, which occurs especially over the southern third of the state. This can bring on mudslides and enhanced beach erosion as storms hit more frequently. The effects on temperature are negligible, and can go either way.
What are some of el nino's effects on land and sea?
Asked by Wiki User
Some of El Nino's effects on land and sea include long-lasting drought, a significant increase or decrease in thunderstorm activity, and below normal hurricane activity. The warming of the Pacific ocean as a result of weakening trade winds causes El Nino.
How was el nino discovered?
Asked by Wiki User
South American fisherman have given this phenomenon the name El Nino, which is Spanish for "The Christ Child," because it comes about the time of the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child-Christmas.
What happend during the years of El Nino?
Asked by Wiki User
The pressure gradient decreases.
drought conditions in Australia
What effect does el nino have on Canada?
Asked by Wiki User
Absolutely none. El Nino is an ocean current (approximately 27 miles long) off the western coast of South America. It has little affect on any of the environment other than the immediate area around the current.
What the media has lead the rest of the media watching world to believe is El Nino is actually the Southern Oscillation or climate change.
Precision of language is important.
Why is it helpful to a community to be able to predict an El Nino event?
Asked by Wiki User
Fishermen who ply the waters of the Pacific off the coast of Peru and Ecuador have known for centuries about the El Niño. Every three to seven years during the months of December and January, fish in the coastal waters off of these countries virtually vanish, causing the fishing business to come to a standstill. South American fishermen have given this phenomenon the name El Niño, which is Spanish for "the Boy Child," because it comes about the time of the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child. During an El Niño, the physical relationships between wind, ocean currents, oceanic and atmospheric temperature, and biosphere break down into destructive patterns that are second only to the march of the seasons in their impacts to weather conditions around the world.
--------------------------------------...
If the fishing industry can predict El Niño, they will be better able to plan for a time when the fish vanish from the coastal waters. This is how they earn their living, and it is 'very' important to them!
What is El Nino how is it caused and what are its effects?
Asked by Wiki User
[American Spanish, from Spanish, the Christ child (from its onset being around Christmastide) : el, the (from Latin ille) + niño, child (from Old Spanish ninno, from Vulgar Latin *nīnnus).]
An El Nino condition results from weakened trade winds in the western Pacific Ocean near Indonesia, allowing piled-up warm water to flow toward South America.
The deeper, warmer water in the east limits the amount of nutrient-rich deep water normally surfaced by the upwelling process. Since fish can no longer access this rich food source, many of them die off. This is why these conditions are called "El Nino", or "the Christ Child", which is what Peruvian fisherman call the particularly bad fishing period around December. More importantly, the different water temperatures tend to change the weather of the region.
What happens to the ocean also affects the atmosphere. Tropical thunderstorms are fueled by hot, humid air over the oceans. The hotter the air, the stronger and bigger the thunderstorms. As the Pacific's warmest water spreads eastward, the biggest thunderstorms move with it. If you look on a map, you will see that suddenly islands like Tahiti, normally tropical paradises, experience massive storms.
Currently, it is not well understood what initiates these changes, and it is likely that it is a large combination of things. The current thinking is that it has to do with oscillations such as the Madden-Julian Oscillation in the tropical Pacific, Atmospheric Angular Momentum, and frictional and mountain torque.
El Nino can have impacts on weather at various locations around the globe. Off the east coast of southern Africa, drought conditions often occur. In countries such as Zimbabwe, the effects of drought can be devastating.
The clouds and rainstorms associated with warm ocean waters also shift toward the east. Thus, rains which normally would fall over the tropical rain forests of Indonesia start falling over the deserts of Peru, causing forest fires and drought in the western Pacific and flooding in South America. Moreover the Earth's atmosphere reponds to the heating of El-Nino by producing patterns of high and low pressure which can have a profound impact on weather far away from the equatorial Pacific. For instance, higher temperatures in western Canada and the upper plains of the United States, colder temperatures in the southern United States. Enhanced precipitation, particularly in the winter occurs from coastal California through the southern United States and across much of the East Coast.
How can the EL nino be prevented?
Asked by Wiki User
La Nina is something that naturally occurs in nature. You cannot prevent it from happening. However, there is something that you can do to lessen the impact and make it less severe. Limiting greenhouse gasses will lessen the severity of La Nina.
Can El Nino be predicted?
Asked by Wiki User
Yes, El Nino can be predicted to an extent: we usually have a pretty good idea where it will be up through at least 6 months, and sometimes more. We are able to do this by extensively monitoring the source region of El Nino (or more correctly, El Nino Southern Oscillation, which also includes La Nina). Here in the Tropical Pacific Ocean, ocean temperatures are carefully monitored with networks of buoys as well as using special types of sensors mounted on satellites. Atmospheric conditions are also obtained from satellites, some buoys, and radiosondes.
All of these data are collected and run through supercomputers, which model the future state of the atmosphere and ocean. Many of these models are run at the same time, and usually the prediction is somewhere around the middle road of the model runs. They are then continuously refined as time goes on and more data are obtained, and the forecasts are always being updated.
How do scientists tell when an el nino will occur?
Asked by Wiki User
Scientists can tell when an El Nino will occur if in the tropical Pacific Ocean, a network of buoys will indicate a change in temperature, currents and winds in the equatorial band. These collected data are evaluated by a computer designed to predict El Nino.
How can we minimize the effects of el nino?
Asked by Wiki User
You can't avoid it because it's an ocean current. It does have an influence on weather patterns globally, but when/if that occurs to the extent that it threatens you directly (which is somewhat unlikely depending on where you live), you can take the appropriate action then.
El Nino is really nothing to be afraid of, despite what it seems like when watching the news during a strong El Nino. It is simply one phase of an oscillation in the Pacific Ocean that has the ability to make weather conditions wetter/dryer and cooler/warmer than they otherwise might be in some places. It is not anything tangible to worry about, and not nearly as scary as you might think.
What kind of weather pattern is caused by a strong El Nino?
Asked by Wiki User
The El Nino phase can cause an increase in number and intensity of hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin. It can cause severe floods in places such as southern California, and droughts in other locations.
How does the weather changes in both the eastern and western pacific during el nino year?
Asked by Wiki User
El Niño is a weather phenomena which tends to occur in tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean. It affects the region across the Pacific from New Guinea to South America, known as the Equatorial Pacific. During an El Niño season, which occurs on average every 2-7 years, a shift in ocean currents and winds brings warm water in a westerly direction, displacing the usual cold water that comes up from the ocean depths. As well as affecting marine life, the El Niño has an effect on weather patterns.
Under normal conditions, in the tropics warm oceans tend to be accompanied by heavy rains, resulting in heavy rains in the warm west Pacific while the cooler east Pacific receives far less rainfall. This is reversed during an El Niño, when the ocean temperature gradient from one side of the Pacific to the other weakens. Warmer than usual ocean temperatures cause droughts in the west, while the unusually warm eastern waters bring heavy rains and floods to the Pacific coast of South America, which is usually much drier.
It's all a matter of interactions between the oceans and the atmosphere. Changes in sea surface temperatures causes a shift in air pressure which, in turn, can result in climatic anomalies, such as severe droughts, flooding and even cyclones. One of the effects is that the normal circulation patterns over the Pacific are disrupted, and moisture-bearing trade winds weaken, whilst drier westerlies increase.
