The effects of El Nino worldwide

[asalmons]

Hello all

My name is Andrew Salmons, and I'm currently studying for my masters at Kingston university.

I've recently chosen to undertake my research paper on El Nino phenomenon. My chosen paper will be a complete overview of El Nino/La Nina and the effects it has worldwide on everything basically. Weather and climate to ecological aspects, and I will look to see if there is one major indicator that El Nino is currently in effect.

So I'm signing up to scientific forums to gather as much information as possible from experts of the area, who could hopefully provide me with a comprehensive list of affects of El Nino which I could then study.

I look forward to hearing from you

Regards
Andrew

[Buddha12]

Welcome to the forums, glad you could find this place.


A quasiperiodic climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean roughly every five years. The Southern Oscillation refers to variations in the temperature of the surface of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean and in air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific. The two variations are coupled: the warm oceanic phase accompanies high air surface pressure in the western Pacific, while the cold phase accompanies low air surface pressure in the eastern Pacific. Mechanisms that cause the oscillation remain under study.

wiki

[MacGyver1968]

I'm no expert, but here in Dallas and the entire NE quadrant of Texas is effected by the El Nino/La Nina cycles.

If you look at this image of the jet stream for NE Texas...the top left image shows what could be considered a "normal" flow of the jet stream.

It looks like a sine wave...it goes up through Canada, then down through the center of NE Texas and out into the Gulf of Mexico. It brings us cooler air from the north, and rain. You can see from this rainfall map that the rains follow this flow:

In the top right, we see another jet stream formation that is common...where the air just circulates in a counter clockwise direction. This brings up warmer air from the south, and creates a "dome" or "bubble of high pressure air over the entire region, acting like a "force field" against the formation of rain storms.

I believe in normal to La Nina years...we get more of type "a" jet stream..and it's cooler and wetter. When in El Nino years...we get more of type "b" jet stream..and it's hotter and drier...and can cause droughts.