El Nino

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El Nino
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El Nino Typical surface ocean circulation
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El nino conditions

• Normal
• El nino strong counter-current

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El nino conditions

• Normal
• El nino strong countercurrent

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El Nino Normal Conditions

• Prentice Hall Textbook animation link

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El Nino El Nino Development

• Prentice Hall Textbook animation link

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El Nino La Nina

• Prentice Hall Textbook animation link

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Winter NH

• El Nino
• La Nina

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Summer NH

• El Nino
• La Nina

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El nino - precipitation
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El nino - precipitation
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Typical winter Effects

• El Nino
• La Nina

http//www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitori
ng/ensocycle/nawinter.html
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El Nino weak Aleutian High
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La Nina strong Aleutian High
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El Nino US Winter Temperatures

• Higher in mid continent
• Lower in south

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El Nino US Winter Precipitation

• Higher in south and coastal regions

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Flooding in San Francisco

• During the winter of 1997-98, wind-driven
  waves and abnormally high sea levels
  significantly contributed to hundreds of millions
  of dollars in flood and storm damage in the San
  Francisco Bay region. Recent analyses by U.S.
  Geological Survey (USGS) scientists of nearly 100
  years of sea-level records collected near the
  Golden Gate Bridge found that these abnormally
  high sea levels were the direct result of that
  year's El Niño atmospheric phenomenon.

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Flooding in San Francisco

• Less land sea winds with El nino conditions
  result in higher sea level.

http//geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/fact-sheet/fs175-99/
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Hurricanes

• El Niño contributes to more eastern Pacific
  hurricanes and fewer Atlantic hurricanes.
• Average US damage 5.9 billion
• La Niña contributes to fewer eastern Pacific
  hurricanes and more Atlantic hurricanes.
• Average US damage 2.0 billion

US hurricane damage
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US Tornados

• Tornado activity
• Depends on the location of the polar jet stream
  (and thus the location an movement of
  mid-latitude cyclones)
• El Nino More to the south
• La Nina more to the north

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AKprecip (in)

• El Nino
• Nov- Dec

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AKTemperature

• El Nino
• Feb - Apr

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Prediction of El Nino

• Satellites
• provide data on tropical rainfall, wind, and
  ocean temperature patterns, as well as changes in
  conditions for hurricane formation.
• Ocean buoys
• help to monitor sea-surface and upper ocean
  temperatures.
• Radiosondes
• balloon-borne instrument platforms with radio
  transmitting capabilities, help to monitor global
  weather and climate patterns
• Super computers
• gather all of the weather data around the world
  and put it into useful formats used by
  scientists.
• Run models for future change