The physics of El Niño
Aug 1, 1998
The past two years have witnessed the
strongest El Niño this century.
Indeed,
the
event received so much media coverage that the
phrase "El Niño" is now part of our everyday vocabulary.
The impact of the
1997/8 El Niño was felt in many parts of the
world: floods and
warm weather led to a failed anchovy season in Peru;
torrential downpours and
mud slides besieged southern California;
droughts caused uncontrollable forest fires in Indonesia;
coral in the
Pacific Ocean was bleached by hotter than average water;
and
shipping through the
Panama Canal was restricted by below-average rainfall.
So,
what is El Niño? How does it disrupt normal weather patterns around the globe? And what do we know about the physics of El Niño?
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