Describe The Changes In Weather Caused By El Niño

The El-Niño Southern Oscillation is a complex sequence of natural climate variations that take place in the tropics of the Pacific Ocean, yet affect the climate of the entire globe. The climate phenomenon, known as ENSO, has three main phases that each differ markedly in their atmospheric and oceanic conditions. El Niño, also known as “the warm phase”, is the first cycle that begins when warm water in the eastern Pacific Ocean shifts to the west toward South America. During El Niño, the east-to-west trade winds halt and sometimes reverse directions, causing significant disturbances in the biological life of the Pacific Ocean. Conversely, La Niña is the complete opposite of El Niño. La Niña, also called “the cold phase” brings unusually strong east-to-west winds and colder temperatures along the equatorial Pacific. Both phases have consequences that affect the regular atmospheric conditions of the world; El Niño is linked to both droughts and floods, La Niña is linked to extreme tropical cyclones and monsoon rains. The climatic events also have relationships to forest fires, economic changes, famine, plagues and widespread crop failure. The study of ENSO is necessary in order to attempt to reveal patterns and key factors that can affect the intensity and severity of this phenomenon that occurs globally on average every two to seven years.

So the simple way of explaining a teleconnection is a warmer and cooler pacific can influence rainfall. “we saw how a vast warming (El Niño) or cooling (La Niña) of the equatorial tropical Pacific can affect the weather in different regions of the world” (Ahrens, 2015, p.271). These major storms as we learned in earlier chapters affect people in many regions of the world. A seasonal forecast is very important because it gives people a chance to prepare for what could possibly be. Forecasters can give a prediction of a wetter or drier season. They have said that this type of forecasting has been seen to be very keen in this field

El Nino is referring to the dramatic change that occurs in the walker circulation cell and in other areas but I am going to focus on this specific area, where the usually south-easterly trade winds going from west of South America to Australia and Indonesia across the Pacific Ocean reverse or severely weaken. This occurs usually every 3-7 years and can last between 12-18 months. During an El Nino the warm sea in the western pacific migrate towards the South American coast because they are being dragged across by the winds. This stops the upwelling near South America and means that there are little nutrients in the sea. This lack of

Dominican republic is a reduced sized island and is located quite far from continental masses, which means that the influence of the see is crucial. The everyday sea land breezes soften the temperatures and have an influence on the amount of precipitation in Dominican Republic. By dragging masses of humid air that comes from the sea the island is free of the extreme temperatures. This is the opposite effect it would have if it were located closer to a continent.

It is important to understand the various cycles our atmosphere goes through due to how they affect our daily lives. The ENSO Cycle has a large impact globally and locally in California as we have seen with the long-term drought Southern California is currently in. The ENSO cycle can be defined by sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly in the Pacific Equatorial Area known as Nino 3.4 region (5oN-5oS, 120o-170oW). Unusually cooler waters (-.5 degrees centigrade) occurring for three consecutive months outlines a La Niña. La Niña’s bring wetter weather to Australia and Indonesia but often leaves the Eastern Pacific dry. Unlike La Niña’s, unusually warm water (+.5 degrees centigrade above average) occurring for 3 consecutive month’s outlines an

The weather gets the cold element from the mountains surrounding the area and the warmness from the currents of Pacific ocrean. However, the city is known to be one of the warmest cities of the country. Though being famous for rains, the city is ranked as 9th in the country for rain. (City of Vancouver - Weather)

Easterly Trade Winds over the equatorial Pacific Ocean are partially to blame for both occurrences. For La Niña, the Easterly Trade Winds substantiate her atmospheric conditions. The Winds blow added warm water west, which causes very cold water below the ocean's surface to rise upward toward the surface replacing the warm water, and this occurs near the South American coast. During an El Niño, the opposite occurs. The Easterly Trade Winds become weaker causing a lessened, to no impact, at all. The Winds can even reverse direction. The warm Pacific Ocean becomes nearly stationary or flows eastward and as it does, it gains heat because there is little or no circulation of air. Not only does El Niño affect weather, it is also responsible for

scientific term that describes the fluxes of the temperatures between the ocean and the atmosphere in the central-eastern equatorial pacific. La Nina is the cold phase of the cycle with El Nino being the warm phase in ENSO cycle. This cooling of water have an impact on global weather and climate. Due to La Nina there are stronger wind currents in the pacific and impacts on Australian rain patterns.

If I could travel to any country in the southern hemisphere, it would be Chile since it has many regions with different temperatures and environments. Because of this variation, the average climate of Chile varies drastically throughout the year from higher monthly temperatures of 30℃ to low temperatures of 8℃, depending on the areas. This also causes the precipitation of Chile to fluctuate greatly, from 0.4 mm rain in one area while 65 mm in other areas. Interestingly, the most precipitation is in the mid-year as the temperature becomes colder, while the end and beginning of the year is warmer and has less rain, which is the exact opposite as it is here in California.

Weather is how the atmosphere behaves during a short period of time while climate is the overall behavior of the atmosphere during a long period of time. The difference between the two is simply the measure of time. Human activities and life may have an effect on both weather and climate. Weather consists of sunshine, rain, storms, blizzards, cold fronts and more. When we look at climate we look at the long-term patterns of weather in specific regions. Climate consists of averages of precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind velocity and sunshine. These are what scientists are looking for when measuring or observing the climate in a region. Climate is the overall weather of a certain region, for example, Europe has a rainy climate because it is almost always raining. Weather changes from day to day, hour to hour so they are not the same thing, but they are related to one another.

This summer we've already been slightly impacted from El Niño. Near the Caribbean Sea and the other parts of the Atlantic basin there's been strong wind shear. El Niño occurs when there's warming of ocean water in the Pacific Ocean. El Niño occurs in a cycle of three to seven years. El Niño will be present winter 2015-2016 and will weaken towards spring. In the United States El Niño lasting into spring is important because precipitation and temperature go from moderate to storm. El Niño can cause major damage to our agriculture,people, and many other

In the winter, this flow is occasionally broken by thrusts of cold arctic air from the middle of the continent. (The cooler winter temperatures is what distinguishes the Humid Subtropical climate from the year-round Humid Tropical climate.) The Gulf Coast, including Florida, receives the most precipitation (averaging 50 inches of rainfall a year) and the warmest temperatures. The inland portions of the South receive precipitation levels of 40 inches a year, while further north the Midwest region averages 30 inches a year.

Pacific Ocean west of Peru hit 5 degrees above average, outpacing the abnormally warm temperatures seen at this time of year in 1997, which developed into the strongest El Niño on record” (latimes.com). California and a majority of South America have gotten unusual rainfall since January because of this El Nino effect. “Mudslides, heavy rainfall, one storm after another like a conveyor belt,” is how they described the oncoming weather for the Western region. This rise in sea temperature did not just cause heavy rainfall in the western states and the South America countries but caused droughts in places like Australia and Indonesia. The frequency of category 4 and 5 hurricanes have been more common since the early 80’s. “El Niño has already

Easterly trade winds, can filter and transform into westerlies. Thus, allowing great masses of warm water to flow from the western Pacific toward the Americas. This then can reduce the upwelling of cooler, nutrient-rich waters from the ocean and shut down or reverse it completely. Overall, El Nino alters ocean life by reducing the fish populations along the eastern Pacific shores and it does this in a couple distinctive ways. As El Nino weakens upwelling of cool nutrient-rich water to the ocean surface, the amount of phytoplankton decreases.

It changes atmospheric pressures with consequences for rainfall, wind patterns, sea surface temperatures and can sometimes have a positive, and sometimes a negative effect on those systems. The beginning of the El Niño system will be seen over North America in the preceding winter. They typically include mild winter temperatures over western Canada and north western USA, above average precipitation in the Gulf Coast, including Florida, and a drier than average period in Ohio and Pacific Northwest. The effects of El Niño can sometime be erratic and are not always be predictable.