The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a recurring climate pattern involving changes in the temperature of waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean El Niño and La Niña are the extreme phases of the ENSO cycle; between these two phases is a third phase called ENSO-neutral
What is El Niño in simple terms?
The term El Niño (Spanish for ‘the Christ Child’) refers to a warming of the ocean surface (or above-average sea surface temperatures) in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean
Is 2020 2021 an El Niño year?
The La Niña conditions that characterised the late part of 2020 and early 2021 have abated, with the majority of forecasts for El Niño/La Niña suggesting that neutral conditions will persist for the remainder of 2021
What causes the El Niño cycle to occur?
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
What happens when El Niño occurs?
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
Why is it called El Niño?
Fishermen off the west coast of South America were the first to notice appearances of unusually warm water that occurred at year’s end The phenomenon became known as El Niño because of its tendency to occur around Christmas time El Niño is Spanish for “the boy child” and is named after the baby Jesus
Is El Niño wet or dry?
Weather typically differs markedly from north to south during an El Niño event (wet in south, dry in north) but also usually varies greatly within one region from event to event
Are we in a La Nina or El Niño?
As things stand with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), neutral conditions are currently present in the tropical Pacific and favored to last through the North American summer and into the fall June 2021 sea surface temperature departure from the 1991-2020 average Jul 8, 2021
Is El Niño warm or cold?
El Niño (the warm phase) and La Niña (the cool phase) lead to significant differences from the average ocean temperatures, winds, surface pressure, and rainfall across parts of the tropical Pacific
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
How does El Niño affect the water cycle?
It is well known that evaporation rates increase as temperature rises During El Niño periods, reduced precipitation in these regions leads to lower terrestrial moisture content, so there is less water in the soil available to evaporate
What are the global effects of El Niño and La Niña?
El Niño impacts weather systems around the globe, triggering predictable disruptions in temperature, rainfall and winds La Niña is the opposite – a cooling phase of ENSO that tends to have global climate impacts opposite to those of El Niño
Why is El Niño important?
This warming of the ocean causes major changes to typical global atmospheric circulation patterns In other words, El Niño creates a domino effect—and this often triggers or intensifies weather extremes all over the world
How does El Niño impact the environment?
In general, El Nino causes global temperatures to rise Thusly, on a global scale, El Nino has been shown to lead to fires or flooding due to these unusually extreme conditions Past El Nino cycles have also lead to extensive property damage due to wind, rain, frost, fire, lightning, and flooding
Where is El Niño?
El Niño is a weather pattern that occurs in the Pacific Ocean During this time, unusual winds cause warm surface water from the equator to move east, toward Central and South America El Niño can cause more rain than usual in South and Central America and in the United States
Is El Niño a natural disaster?
El Niño is an ocean-warming phenomenon in the Pacific that crops up every few years and alters world weather patterns This El Niño has already been linked to a series of weather-related disasters: Massive flooding in Paraguay Drought in Ethiopia
What are 2 effects of El Niño?
Severe drought and associated food insecurity, flooding, rains, and temperature rises due to El Niño are causing a wide range of health problems, including disease outbreaks, malnutrition, heat stress and respiratory diseases
When was the first El Niño?
The first recorded El Niño that originated in the central Pacific and moved toward the east was in 1986 Recent Central Pacific El Niños happened in 1986–87, 1991–92, 1994–95, 2002–03, 2004–05 and 2009–10
Can El Niño cause droughts?
One such phenomenon is the periodic occurrence of El Niño During El Niño episodes the normal patterns of tropical precipitation and atmospheric circulation are disrupted, hence triggering extreme climate events around the globe: droughts, floods and affecting the intensity and frequency of hurricanes
What will winter be in 2021?
Winter will be warmer and drier than normal, with below-normal snowfall The coldest period will be from late December into early January, with the snowiest periods in late November, late December, and early January April and May will have near-normal temperatures and be rainier than normal
What is El Nina 2021?
La Nina is one part of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, which is characterized by opposing warm and cool phases of oceanic and atmospheric conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean For the upcoming winter season, which extends from December 2021 through February 2022, there is an 87% chance of La Nina