El Nino: Global Warming

El Nino:

El Nino is the warming of the central to eastern tropical Pacific that occurs after every two to seven years on average.

This term is commonly referred to the atmospheric rearrangements that occur with the oceanic warming. During El Nino, sea surface temperatures cross a watery expanse as large as the United States can warm by 1–3°F or even more for a period of from a few months to a year or two.

La Nina:

La Niña, the exact opposite of El Nino, is a cooling of the waters across the same region as the El Nino. The term La Nina typically is used to refer to the associated atmospheric patterns as well as oceanic patterns. It often lasts longer than El Niño, sometimes persisting or recurring for two or more years.

Relationship between

El Nino is like La Nina's brother, the totally opposite and attention grabbing brother. This is described as warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the same area of the Pacific Ocean.

El Nino and the hurricane:

Researchers continue to investigate possible interactions between the hurricane frequency and El Niño. It is a phenomenon where ocean surface temperatures become warmer than normal in the equatorial Pacific. In general, more tropical storms and hurricanes in the eastern Pacific and a decrease in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea characterize warm El Niño events.

This theory and the 1997-98 El Nino got agreed. In 1997 the Atlantic Ocean had 7 storms out of which 3 became hurricanes. The comparison between the intense hurricanes and hurricanes is given below:

Atlantic Eastern Pacific Average El Niño Avg. Average El Niño Avg.

Named storms 9.4 7.1 16,7 17.6

Hurricanes 5.8 4.0 9.8 10.0

Intense Hurricanes 2.5 1.5 4.8

Sea surface temperature usually peak up around December but its large impacts are often felt a few months later as the oceans gradually heat up. It has already increased the temperatures in the Central and Eastern Pacific up to 2.178C. Typhoons in Pacific, wildfires in Indonesia, heavy rains and floods in Southeastern India and flooding of the Mississippi River has contributed to the El Nino.

El Nino and the Climate Change:

Some climate researchers have suggested that the climate change is affecting the intensity of El Nino and La Nina. However there’s no scientific theory or experiment on this issue or the heavy El Nino’s observed in the last two years are caused by global warming. Though the climate change is likely to increase the frequency and intensity of the extreme weather event, such as floods and droughts regardless whether the El Nino is impacting them.

El Nino & La Nina the previous Years:

The Oceanic Nino Index (ONI) has been used to identifying the intensities of El Nino and La Nina events in the Tropical Pacific.

El Niño La Niña

Weak Mod Strong Very Strong Weak Mod Strong

1951-52 1963-64 1957-58 1982-83 1950-51 1955-56