Seymour Simon's Extreme Oceans by Seymour Simon

Author:Seymour Simon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2013-02-21T16:00:00+00:00

El Niño and La Niña

Hot or cold, up or down, El Niño and La Niña are a weather seesaw. El Niño (meaning “the little boy”) and La Niña (meaning “the little girl”) refer to dramatic changes in the water temperature in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean that affect weather throughout the world.

Approximately every three to five years, the temperature of the surface waters warms up (El Niño) or cools down (La Niña) about 5° to 10°F (2.8° to 5.6°C) from the average temperatures. Together, these back-and-forth changes are called ENSO (El Niño/Southern Oscillation). ENSO causes extreme and severe weather conditions (such as floods or drought) in different parts of the United States and many other places in the world.

El Niño causes rainy weather on the western side of South America and the southeastern United States. Meanwhile, it leads to drought and wildfire conditions in the countries of the western Pacific, the northwest United States, and the Ohio Valley, along with parts of Australia and East Africa. Surprisingly, the result of El Niño is usually a quieter hurricane season in the Atlantic. El Niño lasts for approximately a year to a year and a half.

La Niña is the opposite of El Niño. La Niña usually occurs after El Niño. La Niña refers to cold conditions in the waters of the Eastern Pacific and causes opposite weather conditions around the world to those of El Niño. During a La Niña year, winters are warmer than average in the southeastern United States and cooler than average in the Northwest. It also causes an increase in the number and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes. La Niña affects the weather more strongly during winters in the United States and the Northern Hemisphere compared to El Niño.

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