The 1997–98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño–Southern Oscillation events in recorded history, resulting in widespread droughts, flooding and other natural disasters across the globe. A newly completed tropical Pacific atmosphere-ocean observing system documented this El Niño from its rapid onset to its sudden demise in greater detail than was ever before possible. With an enhanced background sea level, the likelihood for extreme sea level events increases (even with average tides + waves). Note that you do not have to stick to the map nor to a frequent & regular schedule, but as explained earlier, the more regular the photographs, the more valuable they are to us as scientists! Most were already heavily dependent on foreign aid for capital development and, in some cases, for recurrent expenditures. It is comparable to the strongest events on record, namely the 1982/1983 and 1997/1998 El Niño events. Thanks to the Tijuana National Estuarine Research Reserve and the System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP), particularly Michelle Cordrey data access and maintenance. Unlike most articles on Britannica.com, Book of the Year articles are not reviewed and revised after their initial publication. 1997-1998 El Niño: impact photos from the USGS California coastal monitoring program; Effects on California sea life and birds and ocean fishing fom the California Dept of Fish and Wildlife; El Niño and California rainfall from ggweather.com; Non-coastal Areas in the U.S., Canada. There is already concern that the more frequent occurrence of El Niño since 1977 represents a trend for the future. The effects of El Niño and La Niña have broad-reaching effects on global weather, but they penetrate even further into the global society and economy. 9500 Gilman Drive # 0206 La Niña ("The Girl Child") brings contrasting conditions, with cooler ocean temperatures, less rain, and less frequent cyclones in the east and an increased risk of cyclones in Fiji and the islands to the west. El Niño reportedly takes place every 2 to 7 years and can last from months to a period of up to two years. The co-occurrence of extreme tides during the end of November, December, and January (nicknamed “King Tides”), as well as increased storms enhances the odds of extreme water level events even further. We are hoping to involve citizen scientists in our research efforts through the use of photographs and limited water sampling. During 1997-98 the El Niño weather pattern wreaked more havoc and destruction on the Pacific Islands than it had since 1982-83. Towards the end of 1998 the Index indicated that, rather than a return to "normality," a major La Niña could be expected, bringing drier conditions to French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, and Tokelau; an increased incidence of cyclonic storms in Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Solomon Islands; and an easing of drought conditions on the eastern coasts of Australia and New Zealand. These conditions can impact estuaries and the coast both from the downstream (ocean) end as well as from the upstream (freshwater) end. Observations during the ongoing 1997 El Niño event are generally consistent with what has been recorded during previous events along the coastal regions of California, Oregon, and Washington, and in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. Other scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography are tracking coastal flooding along infrastructure such as roads, measuring beach erosion and potential sand berm breaching. fronts & shoal/channel interactions, new paper on Yanai Waves in the equatorial Indian Ocean, fieldwork in Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge, new paper on mid- to outer-shelf transport, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, regularly from the same location and angle (e.g., once per week or once per day) including low and high tides, with a fixed reference point within the field of view (e.g., a bridge edge), documenting large erosion or inundation events after a storm passes, water samples of salinity, temperature, and depth taken from a hand-held instrument.

Although El Niño generally results in a reduced risk of severe storm activity in the western Pacific, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu were both struck by cyclones in January 1998. Fisheries were also affected.