Why Do Scientists Use Computers To Map El Nino?

Introduction

During El Niño, the jet stream is oriented from west to east across the southern portion of the United States. Thus, this region becomes more susceptible to severe weather outbreaks during the winter.
Maps showing El Niño and La Niña historical impacts on weather patterns in the United States are available from NOAA National Center for Environmental Information (here ) and NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (here). Get new captcha!
That isn’t an answerable question. El Niño does increase the chances for a wet and stormy winter and early spring overall across the southern tier of the United States, but it’s impossible to say that any single storm was solely caused by El Niño and wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
Only two decades seem to violate the general rule: the 1960s and the 1990s. By our definition, 1963 did not qualify as El Niño year because the DecemberFebruary ONI value was neutral. However, El Niño did emerge later in the year, and it persisted for 7 months.

What is El Niño and why does it matter?

El Niño—which means ‘the little boy’ or ‘the Christ child’ in Spanish—is part of the most influential natural climate pattern on the Earth, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, usually referred to as ENSO . El Niño itself is a periodic weakening of the usually steady, east to west trade wind patterns near the surface of the tropical Pacific.
El Niño is a weather pattern. In El Niño years, ocean waters along South America and California warm above normal temperatures. Many rain clouds form over this warm part of the ocean and move inland, dumping more rain than usual in South and Central America and in the United States.
In the United States, the effects of El Niño are felt most strongly in winter . The phenomena generally last nine to 12 months, though they can last longer than a year and La Niña has been known average longer timeframes and to last up to 33 months. What types of weather changes can be expected from El Niño and La Niña?
Here’s a movie that shows the El Niño and La Niña conditions as they occur from December 1996 through January 2000. Watch the white bulge of warm water travel across the Pacific ocean. Click to play movie.

Where can I find historical El Niño and La Niña maps?

La Nina is considered to be the counterpart to El Nino, which is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean. Together, La Niña and El Niño are the ‘cold’ ( La Niña) and ‘warm’ ( El Niño) phases of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
El Niño events occur irregularly at two- to seven-year intervals. However, El Niño is not a regular cycle, or predictable in the sense that ocean tides are. El Niño was recognized by fishers off the coast of Peru as the appearance of unusually warm water.
Only two decades seem to violate the general rule: the 1960s and the 1990s. By our definition, 1963 did not qualify as El Niño year because the DecemberFebruary ONI value was neutral. However, El Niño did emerge later in the year, and it persisted for 7 months.
During El Niño, the surface winds across the entire tropical Pacific are weaker than usual. Ocean temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean are warmer than average, and rainfall is below average over Indonesia and above average over the central or eastern Pacific.

How does El Niño affect storms in the south?

An El Niño in the Pacific Ocean affects weather patterns all over the world. One effect is that El Niño causes wind conditions in the upper atmosphere that slow down developing storms in the Atlantic Ocean. Remember Hurricane Katrina in 2005? Scientists think that climate change may cause more of these huge storms.
El Niño is an anomalous, yet periodic, warming of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. During an El Niño, these trade winds weaken, and may at times reverse from west to east. The most persistent thunderstorms will shift from the western to the eastern and central Pacific Ocean in an El Niño.
El Niño Impacts and and Outlook: Midwest Region and Great Lakes Region ‘This pattern brings above-normal temperatures to much of the Midwest region, particularly across the northern states. This does not mean that cold weather will not happen this winter but typical extreme cold weather may be milder and less frequent.
La Niña has opposite impacts across the Pacific and Atlantic basins. During La Niña, the area of tropical convection and its Hadley circulation is retracted westward to the western Pacific and Indonesia, and the equatorial Walker circulation is enhanced. Convection is typically absent across the eastern half of the equatorial Pacific.

Which decades did El Niño not occur in 1963?

ENSO conditions have occurred at two- to seven-year intervals for at least the past 300 years, but most of them have been weak. Evidence is also strong for El Niño events during the early Holocene epoch 10,000 years ago. El Niño may have led to the demise of the Moche and other pre-Columbian Peruvian cultures.
The 19821983 El Niño event was one of the strongest El Niño events since records were kept. It led to droughts in Indonesia and Australia, widespread flooding across the southern United States, lack of snow in the northern United States, and an anomalously warm winter across much of the mid-latitude regions of North America and Eurasia.
Some sources say that the El Niños of 2006-07 and 2014-16 were also Central Pacific El Niños. Colored bars show how El Niño years (red, regional warming) and La Niña years (blue, regional cooling) relate to overall global warming.
The 19971998 El Niño event was regarded as one of the strongest El Nià ±o events in recorded history, which resulted in widespread drought, flooding and other natural disasters occurring across the globe.

What is La Niña and El Nino?

First, El Niño means â€the little boy†in Spanish, and La Niña, â€the little girl†. They are opposite phases of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a temperature variation between the ocean and the atmosphere over the east-central Tropical Pacific.
However, well-understood, medium-term variations like El Niño and La Niña could help us predict imminent changes with higher precision. First, El Niño means â€the little boy†in Spanish, and La Niña, â€the little girl†.
In the Pacific Ocean, warm water suppresses the upwelling of deeper waters during El Niño cycles, while cold water stimulates the upwelling of deeper waters during La Niña cycles. Heavy rains over the west coast of South America are associated with El Niño cycles, while dry conditions are experienced over the region during La Niña cycles.
La Niña episodes represent periods of below-average sea surface temperatures across the east-central Equatorial Pacific. Global climate La Niña impacts tend to be opposite those of El Niño impacts. In the tropics, ocean temperature variations in La Niña also tend to be opposite those of El Niño.

How often does El Nino occur?

El Niño events occur irregularly at two- to seven-year intervals. However, El Niño is not a regular cycle, or predictable in the sense that ocean tide s are. El Niño was recognized by fishers off the coast of Peru as the appearance of unusually warm water.
El Niño (EN) is characterized by a large scale weakening of the trade winds and warming of the surface layers in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean. El Niño events occur irregularly at intervals of 2-7 years, although the average is about once every 3-4 years.
When this warming occurs for seven to nine months, it is classified as El Niño ‘conditions’; when its duration is longer, it is classified as an El Niño ‘episode’. During strong El Niño episodes, a secondary peak in sea surface temperature across the far eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean sometimes follows the initial peak.
Some sources say that the El Niños of 2006-07 and 2014-16 were also Central Pacific El Niños. Colored bars show how El Niño years (red, regional warming) and La Niña years (blue, regional cooling) relate to overall global warming.

How does El Niño affect the Pacific Ocean?

In El Niño years, the Pacific Ocean water warms up quickly. In La Niña years, the water cools down. The short-term warming during El Niño has a big impact on coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean. This study looked at other studies of coral bleaching during El Niño.
El Niño can cause more rain than usual in South and Central America and in the United States. El Niño is a weather pattern that occurs in the Pacific Ocean, but it is so big that it affects weather all over the world. Weather depends a lot on ocean temperatures.
Among the variations in oceanographic features that are observed following an El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event are changes in sea-surface temperatures, changes in the vertical, thermal structure of the ocean ( particularly in coastal regions), and altered coastal and upwelling currents.
Typhoon in Taiwan. These warm surface waters deepen the thermocline, the level of ocean depth that separates warm surface water from the colder water below. During an El Niño event, the thermocline can dip as far as 152 meters (500 feet). This thick layer of warm water does not allow normal upwelling to occur.

What is El Nino weather?

El Niño can cause more rain than usual in South and Central America and in the United States. El Niño is a weather pattern that occurs in the Pacific Ocean, but it is so big that it affects weather all over the world. Weather depends a lot on ocean temperatures.
The phrase ‘ El Niño ‘ refers to the Christ Child and was coined by fishermen along the coasts of Ecuador and Peru to describe the warm ocean current that typically appeared around Christmas time and lasted for several months.
However, there are occasions when El Niño weakens during the spring but restrengthens during the summer. It’s conceivable that El Niño lasts for more than a year, but typically they last between six to eight months, he said. When neither an El Niño or La Niño is underway that means the climate pattern is ENSO-neutral.
Historically, El Niño events occur about every two to seven years and usually alternate with a cold phase and a warm phase in the eastern and central tropical Pacific.

How long do El Niño and La Niña last?

How long do El Niño and La Niña typically last? El Niño and La Niña episodes typically last 9-12 months. They both tend to develop during the spring (March-June), reach peak intensity during the late autumn or winter (November-February), and then weaken during the spring or early summer (March-June).
La Niña means Little Girl in Spanish. La Niña is also sometimes called El Viejo, anti-El Niño, or simply ‘a cold event.’ La Niña has the opposite effect of El Niño. During La Niña events, trade winds are even stronger than usual, pushing more warm water toward Asia.
For El Niño, the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean has to be 0.5°C or more warmer than average, and winds, surface pressure, and rainfall must have begun to show changes consistent with El Niño. (See What happens during El Niño and La Niña?)
El Niño. The term El Niño refers to the large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to a periodic warming in sea surface temperatures across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific. Typical El Niño effects are likely to develop over North America during the upcoming winter season.

Is there a movie about El Niño and La Nina?

El Niño and La Niña are actually two phases of a weather phenomenon known as the â€ENSO cycle.†ENSO stands for â€El Niño-Southern Oscillation.†The ENSO cycle is a climate pattern off the coast of Peru in South America, in the Pacific Ocean.
El Niño is a Cops and Robbers (well, Cops and Drug Mules!) movie in inimitable Spanish style. It revolves around a couple of small town hoods, El Niño (Jesus Castro) and his pal El Compi (Jesus Carroza) who want to get into the drug smuggling business in the Gibraltar stretch.
There an 87% chance of La Niña this winter, the season when North American weather and climate are most affected by ENSO (El Niño/Southern Oscillation, the entire El Niño/La Niña system). The first step on our â€Is it La Niña?†decision tree asks â€is the monthly Niño-3.4 Index equal to or less than -0.5°C?â€
In 2015, it was officially announced that the Philippines is going to be greatly affected by two phenomena brought about by climate change: El Niño and La Niña. PAGASA, the Philippine weather bureau, said that we are now seeing the end of El Niño and therea growing chance (about 50%) that La Niña will start developing before 2016 ends.

How does El Nino affect the weather?

El Niño can cause more rain than usual in South and Central America and in the United States. El Niño is a weather pattern that occurs in the Pacific Ocean, but it is so big that it affects weather all over the world.
El Niño is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. El Nino is the â€warm phase†of a larger phenomenon called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). … El Niño was recognized by fishers off the coast of Peru as the appearance of unusually warm water.
During an El Niño event, westward-blowing trade winds weaken along the Equator. These changes in air pressure and wind speed cause warm surface water to move eastward along the Equator, from the western Pacific to the coast of northern South America.
When coastal waters become warmer in the eastern tropical Pacific (El Niño), the atmospheric pressure above the ocean decreases. Climatologists define these linked phenomena as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Today, most scientists use the terms El Niño and ENSO interchangeably.

What is El Nino?

El Niño is a weather pattern. In El Niño years, ocean waters along South America and California warm above normal temperatures. Many rain clouds form over this warm part of the ocean and move inland, dumping more rain than usual in South and Central America and in the United States. What is El Niño anyway?
El Niño events occur irregularly at two- to seven-year interval s. However, El Niño is not a regular cycle, or predictable in the sense that ocean tide s are. El Niño was recognized by fishers off the coast of Peru as the appearance of unusually warm water.
The traditional Niño, also called Eastern Pacific (EP) El Niño, involves temperature anomalies in the Eastern Pacific. However, in the last two decades, atypical El Niños were observed, in which the usual place of the temperature anomaly (Niño 1 and 2) is not affected, but an anomaly arises in the central Pacific (Niño 3.4 ).
Wikimedia Commons has media related to El Niño. ‘Current map of sea surface temperature anomalies in the Pacific Ocean’. earth.nullschool.net. ‘Southern Oscillation diagnostic discussion’. Climate Prediction Center (CPC).

Will El Niño affect the Great Lakes region?

It appears through this study, that these and possibly other mesoscale climatological effects are not appreciably influenced by El Niño events. Based on the data collected, strong El Niño events are most likely to affect the climate of the Ohio Valley and lower Great Lakes.
El Niño is not usually a good predictor of winter precipitation for northern California and the northern Great Basin , though model simulations suggest a very strong El Niño may drive above normal precipitation in this area and further north.’ ‘In the south-central United States, there are typically four major impacts during an El Niño event.
As storms often move up the coast during El Niño winters, the Eastern Seaboard generally experiences above-normal precipitation.’ ‘A pronounced gradient in precipitation is typically observed across the Southeast during El Niño, with above-normal precipitation in southern and southeastern portions of the region.
Yet 6 years earlier, southern Ontario suffered a cold winter while the West experienced balmy temperatures during a weaker El Niño. For people who depend on the weather for their livelihood, El Niño has both good and bad side effects.

What are the impacts of La Niña on the Pacific Ocean?

El Niño and La Niña events have wide-ranging impacts, affecting patterns of rainfall, flooding and drought around the Pacific Rim. A La Niña winter tends to be cooler and wetter in the Pacific Northwest and hotter and drier in the US Southwest.
La Niña is caused by a build-up of cooler-than-normal waters in the tropical Pacific, the area of the Pacific Ocean between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Unusually strong, eastward-moving trade winds and ocean currents bring this cold water to the surface, a process known as upwelling.
La Niña usually has a positive impact on the fishing industry of western South America. Upwelling brings cold, nutrient-rich waters to the surface. Nutrients include plankton eaten by fish and crustacean s.
Scientists use the Oceanic Nino Index to measure the deviations from normal sea-surface temperatures that El Niño and La Niña produce in the east-central Pacific Ocean. La Niña events are indicated by sea-surface temperature decreases of more than .5 degrees Celsius (.9 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least five successive three-month seasons.

Conclusion

The pattern of El Niño has changed dramatically in recent years, according to the first seasonal record distinguishing different types of El Niño events over the last 400 years.
El Niños and La Niñas generally occur about every two to seven years. In between, ocean temperatures and rainfall patterns become more average. The patterns aren’t perfectly clear, though—a strong El Niño doesn’t necessarily mean the following La Niña will be particularly intense, and vice versa.
Some sources say that the El Niños of 2006-07 and 2014-16 were also Central Pacific El Niños. Colored bars show how El Niño years (red, regional warming) and La Niña years (blue, regional cooling) relate to overall global warming.
When this warming occurs for seven to nine months, it is classified as El Nià ±o ‘conditions’; when its duration is longer, it is classified as an El Niño ‘episode’. During strong El Niño episodes, a secondary peak in sea surface temperature across the far eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean sometimes follows the initial peak.