Every three to five years, driven by a reversal in the

trade winds, an El Nio, a huge bulge of warm water

under a blanket of tropical storms, hits the western
most extension of South America, burying the cool
Humboldt Current and dropping heavy rains on Peru
and Ecuador, often around Christmas--hence the name
El Nio

El Nino, an abnormal warming of surface

ocean waters in the eastern tropical Pacific

Sea surface temperature in the equatorial Pacific Ocean (above).

El Nio is characterized by unusually warm temperatures and La
Nia by unusually cool temperatures in the equatorial Pacific.

Normal Conditions (Non

El Nino)
In general, the water on the surface of
the ocean is warmer than at the bottom
because it is heated by the sun. In the
tropical Pacific, winds generally blow in
a easterly direction. These winds tend to
push the surface water toward the west
also.
As the water moves west it heats up
even more because it's exposed longer
to the sun.

Normal Conditions (Non El Nino)

The vast tropical Pacific Ocean receives more
sunlight than any other region on Earth. Much of
this sunlight is stored in the ocean in the form of
heat. Typically, the Pacific trade winds blow from
east to west, dragging the warm surface waters
westward, where they accumulate into a large,
deep pool just east of Indonesia, and northeast of
Australia. Meanwhile, the deeper, colder waters in
the eastern Pacific are allowed to rise to the
surface, creating an east-west temperature
gradient along the equator known as the
thermocline tilt.

What is thermocline?
A thermocline is a thin but distinct
layer in a large body of fluid in which
temperature changes more rapidly
with depth than it does in the layers
above or below. In the ocean, the
thermocline may be thought of as an
invisible blanket which separates the
upper mixed layer from the calm
deep water below.

Normal Conditions
(Non El Nino)

Normally, strong trade winds blow from the east

along the equator, pushing warm water into the
Pacific Ocean. The thermocline layer of water
is the area of transition between the warmer
surface waters and the colder water of the
bottom.

Normal Conditions (Non El Nino)

The trade winds tend to lose strength with

the onset of springtime in the northern
hemisphere. Less water is pushed westward
and, consequently, waters in the central and
eastern Pacific begin to heat up (usually
several degrees Fahrenheit) and the
thermocline tilt diminishes. But the trade
winds are usually replenished by the Asian
summer monsoon, and the delicate balance
of the thermocline tilt is again maintained.

Normal Conditions (Non El Nino)

Meanwhile in the eastern Pacific

along the coast of South America an
upwelling occurs. Upwelling is the
term used to decribe when deeper
colder water from the bottom of the
ocean moves up toward the surface
away from the shore.

Normal Conditions (Non El Nino)

This nutrient-rich water is responsible

for supporting the large fish
population commonly found in this
area. Indeed, the Peruvian fishing
grounds are one of the five richest in
the world.

 The first signs of an El Nio are:

Rise in surface pressure over the Indian Ocean,
Indonesia, and Australia
Fall in air pressure over Tahiti and the rest of the
central and eastern Pacific Ocean
Trade winds in the south Pacific weaken or head east
Warm air rises near Peru, causing rain in the northern
Peruvian deserts
Warm water spreads from the west Pacific and the
Indian Ocean to the east Pacific. It takes the rain with
it, causing extensive drought in the western Pacific
and rainfall in the normally dry eastern Pacific.

Normal Conditions (Non El Nino)

Because the trade winds push surface
water westward toward Indonesia, the sea
level is roughly half a meter higher in the
western Pacific than in the east. Thus you
have warmer, deeper waters in the
western Pacific and cooler, shallower
waters in the east near the coast of South
America. The different water temperatures
of these areas effects the types of
weather these two regions experience.

Normal Conditions (Non El Nino)

In the east the water cools the air
above it, and the air becomes too
dense to rise to produce clouds and
rain. However; in the western Pacific
the air is heated by the water below
it, thus increasing the likelihood of
rain. This is why heavy rain storms
are typical near Indonesia while Peru
is relatively dry.

 Sometimes, and for reasons not fully understood, the trade

winds do not replenish, or even reverse direction to blow from
west to east. When this happens, the ocean responds in a
several ways.
Warm surface waters from the large, warm pool east of
Indonesia begin to move eastward.
Moreover, the natural spring warming in the central Pacific is
allowed to continue and also spread eastward through the
summer and fall.
Beneath the surface, the thermocline along the equator flattens
as the warm waters at the surface effectively act as a 300-footdeep cap preventing the colder, deeper waters from upwelling.
As a result, the large central and eastern Pacific regions warm
up (over a period of about 6 months) into an El Nio

El-Nino Conditions
El Nino happens when weakening
trade winds (which sometimes even
reverse direction) allow the warmer
water from the western Pacific to
flow toward the east. This flattens
out the sea level, builds up warm
surface water off the coast of South
America, and increases the
temperature of the water in the
eastern Pacific.

El-Nino Conditions

An El Nino condition results from weakened trade winds in the

western Pacific Ocean near Indonesia, allowing piled-up warm
water to flow toward South America.

El-Nino Conditions

El-Nino Conditions
The deeper, warmer water in the east limits
the amount of nutrient-rich deep water
normally surfaced by the upwelling process.
Since fish can no longer access this rich food
source, many of them die off. These
conditions are called "El Nino", or "the Christ
Child", which is what Peruvian fisherman call
the particularly bad fishing period around
December.
Also different water temperatures tend to
change the weather of the region.

El-Nino Conditions
What happens to the ocean also
affects the atmosphere. Tropical
thunderstorms are fueled by hot,
humid air over the oceans. The
hotter the air, the stronger and
bigger the thunderstorms. As the
Pacific's warmest water spreads
eastward, the biggest thunderstorms
move with it.

El-Nino Conditions

The clouds and rainstorms

associated with warm ocean
waters also shift toward the
east. Thus, rains which
normally would fall over the
tropical rain forests of
Indonesia start falling over the
deserts of Peru, causing forest
fires and drought in the

This series of images shows how

the thermocline tilt changes
during the onset of an El Nio.
Notice how in January 1997 (left)
there is a steep temperature
gradient between the western
and eastern Pacific Ocean. In April
1997 (center), much of the deep
pool of warm water in the west
has migrated eastward, lessening
the temperature gradient. By July

El-Nino Conditions
Moreover the Earth's atmosphere reponds to
the heating of El-Nino by producing patterns
of high and low pressure which can have a
profound impact on weather far away from
the equatorial Pacific. For instance, higher
temperatures in western Canada and the
upper plains of the United States, colder
temperatures in the southern United States.
The east coast of southern Africa often
experiences drought during El Nino.

El-Nino Conditions
Ecosystem Destruction
Coral reefs are sensitive ecosystems, they are a
home to many plants and fish. The rise in sea
temperature caused by El Nino and exposure to
the Sun combine to destroy algae that protects
the coral, which then bleaches white and dies.
Destruction of coral from the effects of El Nino can
be extensive. Recovery of the reefs may take a
very long time.

El-Nino Conditions
In the western Pacific, sea level drops
as much of the warm surface water
flows eastward. During the 1982-83
El Nio, this drop in sea level
exposed and destroyed upper layers
of coral reefs surrounding many
western Pacific islands.