What countries were affected by El Nino and La Nina?
El Niño and La Niña have the greatest impact on countries around the equator. This includes Central and South America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and Eastern and Southern Africa. In other words, they hit some of the world’s poorest regions the hardest. What’s more, these regions rely heavily on agriculture.
Where is El Nino and La Nina located?
the Pacific Ocean
El Niño and La Niña are climate patterns in the Pacific Ocean that can affect weather worldwide.
Did an El Niño event occur during the winter of 2015 2016?
The 2015/2016 El Niño event was one of the strongest of the last 145 years, resulting in anomalously high wave energy across the U.S. West Coast, and record coastal erosion for many California beaches.
What’s the difference between La Niña and El Niño?
El Niño events are associated with a warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific, while La Niña events are the reverse, with a sustained cooling of these same areas. These changes in the Pacific Ocean and its overlying atmosphere occur in a cycle known as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
Is La Niña caused by climate change?
Overall, they showed that El Niño and La Niña events are expected to increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change.
Did an El Niño happen in 2015?
The two strongest El Niños of the 20th century were those of 1982/83 and 1997/98, each of which was considered at the time a ‘once-in-a-century’ event. The El Niño of 2015/16 is in the same class as those of 1982/83 and 1997/98, and it set new records in the NINO4 and NINO3.
What is a La Nina event?
La Niña occurs when equatorial trade winds become stronger, changing ocean surface currents and drawing cooler deep water up from below. This results in a cooling of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
How often do El Niño and La Niña occur?
El Niños typically occur every 3 to 5 years. The rise of El Niño and La Niña How do El Niño and La Niña events form and increase in strength? The key is in the ocean-atmosphere coupling across the tropical Pacific Ocean.
What happened to the El Niño of 2015-16?
In 2014-2015 there was a weak, central Pacific El Niño, so the El Niño of 2015-16 had a jump start. The 1997-98 El Niño was followed by a strong La Niña event, while a mild La Niña followed the 2015-16 El Niño – reminding us yet again, that each El Niño event is different.
What does El Niño look like in the Pacific Ocean?
Satellite sea surface temperature departure in the Pacific Ocean for the month of October 2015, where darker orange-red colors are above normal temperatures and are indicative of El Niño. (NOAA)
What is La Niña and why does it matter?
What is La Niña? An El Niño condition occurs when surface water in the equatorial Pacific becomes warmer than average and east winds blow weaker than normal. The opposite condition is called La Niña. During this phase of ENSO, the water is cooler than normal and the east winds are stronger.