Importance Of El Nino

Geography ENSO Essay
By
Ryan Labuschagne

What is ENSO? In geographical terms ENSO, stands for El Nino/La Nina-Southern Oscillation. In simple terms it is a major weather change which occurs mainly over the Tropical Pacific Ocean. The phenomenon occurs around every five years. El Nino and La Nino represent two different weather changes, each of which have their own characteristics. El Nino which is the warm oceanic phase, is known to have a low pressure cell over the Eastern Pacific on the west coast of South America. The cold oceanic phase known as La Nina initiates a high surface pressure or more commonly known as a high pressure cell which is located in the same region as the low pressure cell during El Nino.
Predicting ENSO:
In today's

There is a vast number of factors to consider when preparing for El Nino or La Nina. In drought conditions one has to consider the impact it will have on the agricultural sector. Depending on the country and the climatic region in which it is situated there will either be crops or live stock. Farmers may have to sell their livestock to the abattoirs if there is no grazing available. This may cause a shortage of meat later on in the year, thus leading to drastic price increases. If the crops aren't being produced there will be a shortage of quality foods to export, therefore, imports will increase. This in turn, causes inflation to increase. The countries GDP will then decrease which does not look good for foreign investors, causing the countries overall standards to decrease. If we look at the flooding conditions expected during ENSO, there will be a high amount of infrastructure damage due to the vast amount of water that falls in a short period of time. Flooding occurs in an area which does not normally receive the amounts that they will during ENSO, therefore causing there to be little or sometimes no emergency evacuation plans in

The flooding that a country may experience could cause destruction to families homes and their property. Another factor is the effect it has on the informal sector. When there are floods and the rivers burst their banks, many children have to risk their lives when crossing to make their way to school. The government may try and put in safety measures to make sure the informal sector are risk free, as the informal sectors are the communities that will take the longest to recover from such a disaster.

In conclusion to this topic on ENSO, we can see that it is vital to get the technology in place in order to try and predict the ENSO period and which area will be affected. It is also important that there are several emergency plans that are in place when an ENSO is initiated. As well as having sufficient funds in order to implement clean up programs after floods or to initiate water and food drives in drought stricken areas.

References:
• http://drought.unl.edu/droughtbasics/ensoandforecasting.aspx(Date access: