FAQs About El Nino

The sheer amount of unprecedented climate changes in the last decade has many people paying attention to the weather with a new found respect. Tsunamis, hurricanes and the subsequent flooding that they have provided has the world asking new questions about the El Nino phenomenon.

Q: What exactly is El Nino?

A: El Nino is simply defined by unusually warm temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean. Every 4-12 years the ocean's surface warms off the western coast of South America. The consequences of these warmer temperatures affects the ocean's atmosphere, thereby affecting the world's weather. The absence of the nutrient-rich colder water causes the death of fish, plankton and other micro-organisms affecting the winds of the Pacific jet stream. These changes to the jet stream alters storm paths, hence changing weather patterns throughout the world.

Q: What are some of the consequences of El Nino?

A: In the Southern United States and Peru, El Nino has brought increased rainfall. This same rainfall has caused floods in the United States, drought in the West Pacific and has attributed to Australian brush fires.

Q: Where did the name El Nino come from?

A: A Peruvian fisherman originally gave the warm current the name El Nino. In Spanish, El Nino translates to The Little Boy or Christ child. The fisherman had noticed that the event occurred around Christmas every year. In the 1960's it was determined that El Nino was not just occurring around the waters of Peru, but was found to attribute to changes all over the tropical Pacific ocean.