Word: nino
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...question is what's going to happen in the coming hurricane season. The westerly wind patterns that El Nino fosters tend to shear off the tops of developing Atlantic Ocean hurricanes. Last year, for example, when El Nino was firmly in control, the Atlantic hurricane season was over almost before it began. La Nina, by contrast, partners with wind patterns that favor the formation of Atlantic Ocean hurricanes. The problem is that forecasters at the moment are looking at a mixed picture. While sea-surface temperatures in parts of the tropical Pacific have dropped precipitately, there are still substantial patches...
This was the sign meteorologists had been waiting for. Not only does the sharp fall in ocean temperatures signal the breakup of the giant pool of warm water in the tropical Pacific that triggered one of the century's greatest El Ninos, but it may also signal the birth of El Nino's unruly twin sister, the climatological reversal that scientists call La Nina ("the girl...
...Americans suffering through one of the worst heat waves of the century, a break in the weather can't come too soon. El Nino is at least partly responsible for the scorching drought and record temperatures that have been blamed for 50 deaths across the U.S., 30 of them in Texas, which has hit triple digits every day for two weeks. With El Nino's help, a high-pressure zone has been anchored over the South for several months, robbing places like Texas and Florida of the thunderstorms and cooling rains that usually bring relief at this time of year...
Broadly speaking, La Nina is the flip side of El Nino. But as the scientists at last week's workshop agreed, it is not just a mirror image. For one thing, La Ninas in general are never quite as cold as El Ninos are warm. Also, while El Ninos grow in strength with each degree of change in ocean temperature, La Ninas do not. The reason can be traced to the physics that links the atmosphere to the ocean. What allows El Nino to affect weather worldwide is the intrusion of unusually warm water into the eastern Pacific. As this...
...distinction between La Nina and so-called normal conditions is not at all obvious. El Nino, for example, is truly an aberration. It makes dry places wet, wet places dry, warm places cold and cold places warm. By contrast, La Nina appears to exaggerate conditions that are more or less normal. Thus, under La Nina's sway, the Indonesian archipelago, which is usually wet, should expect to receive substantially more rain than it got last year. But in the absence of La Nina, Indonesia would still receive a lot of rain. Similarly, Canada and Alaska, which tend to be cold...