Textbook Problem

Sea Temperature To predict the effect of El Niño or La Niña events in the future, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration collects information about sea surface temperature (SST) and atmospheric conditions. They compare monthly temperature averages in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean to historical data and calculate the difference (the degree of anomaly) to determine if El Niño conditions, La Niña conditions, or neutral conditions are developing. El Niño is a rise in the average SST above 0.5°C. A decline of the same amount is La Niña. FIGURE 47.8 shows data for 42 years.

FIGURE 47.8 Sea surface temperature anomalies (difference from the historical mean) in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. A rise above the dashed red line is an El Niño event, a decline below the blue line is La Niña

What type of event, if any, occurred during the winter of 1982–1983? What about the winter of 2001–2002?