HOW DOES EL NIÑO AFFECTS ENVIRONMENT

I. INTRODUCTION

What is El Niño? It is a climate pattern that describes the unusual

warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. El Niño
is the “warm phase” of a larger phenomenon called the El Niño Southern
Oscillation (ENSO). La Niña, the “cool phase” of ENSO, is a pattern that
describes the unusual cooling of the region’s surface waters. El Niño and
La Niña are considered the ocean part of ENSO, while the Southern
Oscillation is its atmospheric changes. El Niño has an impact on ocean
temperatures, the speed and the strength of ocean currents, the health of
coastal fisheries, and local weather from Australia to South America and
beyond. El Niño events occur irregularly at two to seven year intervals.
However, El Niño is not a regular cycle, or predictable in the sense that
ocean tides are.
II. CAUSES OF EL NIÑO

❖ The Tropical Pacific has consistent westerly moving trade winds.

The trade winds push warm water on the surface of the ocean from
east to west (westerly). This causes warm water to build upon the
western side of the ocean near Asia.
❖ The warm water in the west heats the air, making the warm air rise
and leading to drastic weather, including rain and thunderstorms.
❖ All of these natural occurencies lead to a reinforcement of the
easterly winds and cause a self perpetuating motion in the air in the
Pacific.

III. WHAT ARE THE GLOBAL EFFECTS OF EL NIÑO

ON THE WEATHER

❖ In South America, there is a drastic increase in the risk of flooding

on the western coast, while there is an increase in the risk of
droughts on parts of the eastern coast.
❖ In eastern countries, like India and Indonesia, there is an increase
in droughts.
❖ With all the extra heat at the surface of the Pacific Ocean, energy is
released into the atmosphere, causing an overall warming of the
global climate temporarily.

IV. WHAT IS LA NIÑA?

❖ La Niña is a strengthening of the normal trade winds that typically

occurs after El Niño. Basically, the noemal, non- El Niño wind
cycle is reinforced, pushing the warmest waters in the equatorial
pacific further west than normal, and increasing the pulling up of
cold water to the surface in the east.
V. WHAT ARE THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF EL NIÑO

❖ In Asian countries, there is typically a decrease in rice production.

With an increase in droughts on the western side of the equatorial
Pacific, GDP in the countries in that area tend to drop during the El
Niño cycle. For countries in that area that harvested rice, water is
needed, and the lack of rain can have a huge impact on their rice
production. Because rice production is of great importance in many
of these Asian countries, El Niño has a negative impact on these
countries economies.