9 years ago
1
El Nino set to be strongest ever
The developing El Nino is stronger than the last major event of its type in 1997. According to the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the UK Met Office, this El Nino is shaping up to be the strongest since records began in 1950. El Nino is a natural phenomenon which occurs every two to seven years and lasts between six and 18 months. It manifests as a warming of the surface waters of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.
Continue Reading http://www.aljazeera.com
Join the Discussion
here in southern california, i've heard a "strong" el niño is warm, so instead of the mountains getting snow, the snowpack they've accumulated (if any) gets rained out. it sucks if you snowboard! that means that we won't get a lot of snowpack to keep our streams flowing in the spring, we'd get flooding instead. i therefore don't think it would solve our drought. it would cause mass flooding instead of nice snowpack. what we do the snowdance for is a mild el niño, which brings extra rain, though not as much extra, it is colder, so it brings SNOW!
TL;DR happy dance; sad dance