How do the dynamic weather patterns of El Niño and La Niña work? Why are they so destructive?
What are La Nina and El Niño?
El Niño and La Niña are global climate phenomena caused by the Pacific Ocean's cyclical water temperature changes. These changes, though concentrating on a specific portion of the Pacific near the Equator, have global implications. They affect both temperature and temperature and rainfall.
Each occurrence of El Niño or La Niña lasts between 9-12 months and occurs every 2-7 years on average.
What is El Nino?
The warming process of water temperatures around the Pacific Equator is El Niño.
Trade winds bring warm water from the tropical areas of the Pacific Ocean during the usual weather cycles across the Equator. The winds travel west, distributing warm water from the Eastern Pacific into the colder ocean regions.
Those winds weaken during El Niño, and the east-west journey of warm water ends. The winds reverse and bring warm water back east, making the Pacific Ocean's warm portion even colder. For months, or even years, sea surface temperatures will rise by 1–3 ° Fahrenheit.
What is La Nina?
The opposite of El Niño is La Niña: an intensification of ordinary weather patterns. As winds intensify and blow warm water towards the west, this causes ocean surface temperatures to cool down.
Events in La Niña can but don't always follow events in El Niño.
What are the effects of El Nino and La Nina?
Not only do El Niño and La Niña influence the temperatures of the seas, but also how much it rains on land. This can mean either droughts or floods, depending on which cycle happens (and when).
El Niño and its warm waters are usually correlated with drought, while La Niña is associated with increased flooding. But, since there is a very complicated global weather system, this is not always the case. For instance, El Niño caused both flooding and droughts in various places in 2015.
Does Climate change cause El Nino?
No. Natural events and not caused by climate change are El Niño and La Niña. Climate scientists are, however, researching how the impacts of El Niño and La Niña could be increased by climate change.
Currently, it is unclear how the El Niño cycle can change as the temperature of the world rises, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). If it's more El Niño's, better overall occurrences, or even a decline in El Niño's or La Niña's numbers. This complexity is due to the dynamic give-and-take with a lot of distinct tuning knobs between the atmosphere and the ocean that are each changed by climate change.
The cause is essentially irrelevant to the effect. El Niño-related support is being given by Concern in 10 countries in southern and eastern Africa, particularly Ethiopia and Malawi, which are under the greatest strain. We also agree that we need profound improvements in the growth and humanitarian structures of the world. There is a rising consensus on the need to transition from disaster response to disaster risk management before disasters occur, focusing not just on emergency response, but also on the root causes of disasters and extreme poverty.