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hatrack

(59,387 posts)
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 08:19 AM Jun 2014

Winds Syncing Up For El Nino Trend That Continues To Grow In Strength

The atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean may be getting its act together and finally cooperating with shifting ocean waters to signal that an El Niño has arrived, climate scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported in their latest outlook.

El Niño watchers have been waiting for the climate phenomenon to show up since an El Niño Watch was issued back in March, meaning that conditions were favorable for one to develop in the next six months. Potential El Niño events are so closely watched because of the influence they can have on the world’s weather. Depending on when this El Niño develops, it could also bump up Earth’s already warming temperature enough to make 2014 or 2015 a record warm year, scientists have said.

An El Niño is characterized by warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. It is the warm phase of a larger cyclical climate phenomenon called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation; La Niña is the cool phase and is characterized by colder-than-normal temperatures in the same parts of the Pacific.

But the phenomenon isn’t limited to the oceans; it also affects the wind patterns over those ocean waters. During an El Niño, the trade winds that normally blow from east to west across the tropical Pacific relax and reverse. Sea surface temperatures have been hovering around the mark that determines an El Niño, which is defined as temperatures that are 0.5°C (0.9°F) above normal. Back in March, a large pulse of warm water called a Kelvin wave surged toward the eastern tropical Pacific from the western part. This happened because of the slackening of the trade winds, which normally pile that warm water up in the western part of the basin, but cause it to go tumbling to the east when they dissipate.

EDIT

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/atmosphere-ripe-for-el-nino-17590

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