E
very few years a phenomenon takes place in the Pacific which has farreaching climate implications across various countries. The
effect of this event is termed El
Nino which means ‘the little boy’
and refers to the Christ child because it was usually detected just
before Christmas by South Ameri-
can fishermen off the coast of Peru.
What the fishermen noticed on a
variable but cyclic basis, was that
the surface of the normally cold
eastern Pacific waters would become warmer. This warmer surface
water would widely influence atmospheric circulation, therefore
affecting rainfall and temperatures
in various parts of the world. Different areas would experience greater
or lesser rainfall and higher or lower temperatures than usual. These
effects would last a few months to
a year or so and then gradually return to more familiar conditions.
However, it is never easy to predict
how El Nino will affect a particular
Sea surface temperature during an El Niño event
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/El-nino.png