February 11, 2009 6:00 PM
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El Niņo In Focus
El Niņo, a warming of equatorial waters in the Pacific Ocean that wreaks havoc with world weather conditions, has formed and will last into 2007, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported. The good news: El Niņo has already helped make the Atlantic hurricane season milder than expected, said a NOAA forecaster.
What is El Niņo?
How Does El Niņo Affect The Weather?
Why Is It Called "El Niņo?"
Can meteorologists predict El Niņo?
Why does El Niņo occur?
For More El Niņo Resources:
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. What is El Niņo?
El Niņo is a warming of the Pacific Ocean centered directly on the equator between South America and the International Date Line. It typically extends several degrees of latitude to either side of the equator.
How Does El Niņo Affect The Weather?
It has important consequences for weather and climate around the globe.
For people who live in Indonesia, Australia or southeastern Africa, El Niņo can mean severe droughts and deadly forest fires. Ecuadorians, Peruvians, or Californians, on the other hand, associate it with lashing rainstorms that can trigger devastating floods and mudslides.
For an interactive look at El Niņo, click here.
Severe El Niņo events have resulted in a few thousand deaths worldwide, left thousands of people homeless, and caused billions of dollars in damage. Yet residents on the northeastern seaboard of the United States can credit El Niņo with milder-than-normal winters (and lower heating bills) and relatively benign hurricane seasons.
Why Is It Called "El Niņo?"
El Niņo means "The Little One' in Spanish. El Niņos originally were recognized by fisherman off the coast of South America as the appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean, occurring near the beginning of the year. This name was used for the tendency of the phenomenon to arrive around Christmas.
Can meteorologists predict El Niņo?
According to NOAA, once an El Niņo has started, meteorologists can predict reasonably well its subsequent evolution over the next 6 to 9 months. But before it has started, we have very little skill in predicting the onset before the event has become obvious. There are a variety of theories for why El Niņos start, but none of them has given us real skill in making a forecast in advance, the way we can for thunderstorms.
Why does El Niņo occur?
El Niņo results from interaction between the surface layers of the ocean and the overlying atmosphere in the tropical Pacific. The physical processes are complicated, but they involve unstable air-sea interaction and planetary-scale oceanic waves.
For More El Niņo Resources:
• For a useful explanation of El Niņo, click here for NOAA's explanation.
• National Academy of Sciences El Niņo Web site
• The Climate Analysis Center at the U.S. National Center for Environmental Prediction provides up to date Reginal Climate Monitoring information from many parts of the world.
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