http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/ENSO/composites/.

"It is like the proverbial chicken-and-egg problem," says Michael McPhaden of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

(NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using data from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory.).

[7] These changes in surface temperature reflect changes in the depth of the thermocline.

The warming phase of the sea temperature is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña.

While not guaranteed, the changes in temperature and precipitation across the United States are fairly reliable and often provide enough lead time for emergency managers, businesses, government officials, and the public to properly prepare and make smart decisions to save lives and protect livelihoods. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Fifteen years later, SeaWiFS compiled the first high quality, Pacific-wide view of chlorophyll-a during the very strong 1997-98 El Niño. Scientists are actively trying to understand how these changes in weather patterns in one area can alter the movement of air masses and winds in areas adjacent to and even far away from the source. (Image courtesy of the NASA/NOAA GOES Project.). [5] As a direct result sea surface temperatures in the western Pacific are generally warmer, by about 8–10 °C (14–18 °F) than those in the Eastern Pacific. Davis, Mike. [80] However, comprehensive satellite data go back only to 1979.

This, in turn, modifies wet and dry areas, causing some places to experience droughts while others may get floods, landslides, and a redistribution of groundwater.

The El Niño signal is evident in the eastward-blowing winds in the tropical western and central Pacific.

For instance, during the two strongest events in the past 60 years (1982/83 and 1997/98), much-above-median rainfall amounts fell across the entire state of California.


The two phases relate to the Walker circulation, which was discovered by Gilbert Walker during the early twentieth century. What no one seems to realize is that this El Nino is coming with a vengeance - it's going to make 82' look like a rain shower. (. Is this accurate?
Low atmospheric pressure tends to occur over warm water and high pressure occurs over cold water, in part because of deep convection over the warm water. Remote Sensing, By Mike Carlowicz and Stephanie Schollaert Uz, California-Nevada Climate Applications Program, unusually heavy rainfall swamped South America, massive reorganization of ocean heat, clouds, rainfall, and winds. (Photographs courtesy of Armada de Chile.). [31] However, data on EQSOI goes back only to 1949.[31]. When the trade winds ease and bursts of wind come out of the west, warm water from the western Pacific pulses east in vast, deep waves (Kelvin waves) that even out sea level a bit.

It might be that as the North Pole warms, ridges of cold air will drop farther and farther East, but the ocean currents will have effects too that might change that equation.

“During an El Niño year, weakening winds along the equator lead to warming water surface temperatures that lead to further weakening of the winds.”. Jennings, S., Kaiser, M.J., Reynolds, J.D. Rev., 115, 1606-1626. c. upwelling along the west coast of south america increases. How will El Nino pattern affect New England, Massachusetts, New Hampshire? In fact, imagery collected by CZCS during the very strong 1982-83 El Niño showed the regional demise of marine life around the Galapagos Islands.

The strength of the Southern Oscillation is measured by the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). Typically we get much more rain than the surrounding areas. Cloudiness is a result of moisture rising from the ocean surface into the atmosphere.