Weather Blog: Strengthening El Nino...
By Steven Strouss
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The waters are heating up off the coast of South America and it is becoming evident that a strong El Nino is developing. El Nino (Spanish word for The Child) refers to the warming ocean waters off the coast of Peru. This area of warm water can stretch for thousands of miles, in the Pacific Ocean, and reach depths over 300 ft. This phenomenon plays a major role in altering weather patterns here in the United States and around the world.
Some impacts of El Nino include more rain in the desert southwest and stronger storms and floods across Central and South America. Droughts have occurred in Indonesia, Australia and India during El Nino years and across parts of Africa where brush fires become more common. Fishing industries have been hurt because of fewer nutrients at the surface for fish to feed on, and global economies are shaken because of crop failure, flooding and the higher costs of cooling.
Usually El Nino can enhance hurricane development in the Pacific Ocean but limits hurricane activity in the Atlantic. During the El Nino season of 2006, no hurricane made landfall in the United States. The slow, quiet start to the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season can be attributed to this developing El Nino which typically causes strong wind shear over the Atlantic tropical regions limiting storms from becoming organized.
In the northeast United States we might expect more storms during El Nino years and through the winter months more nor'easters may occur. One interesting note is that some of snowiest winters in Philadelphia were recorded during El Nino years. The snowiest season of all was 2009-2010 when 78.7 inches of snow fell in the city. This also happened to be our most recent El Nino.
Another effect of El Nino is that the Earth warms. Warmer waters mean warmer temperatures worldwide and this has economic impacts that stretch from Asia to Europe to the Americas. June 2015 was the warmest ever on the planet with an average temperature of 61.2 degrees Fahrenheit. This was 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average and it is feared that El Nino will continue to push global temperatures even higher.
This particular El Nino has potential to be the strongest and longest since 1997-1998. It started in the Spring of 2015 and is getting stronger. It should peak by the end of the year but then weaken in early 2016. For more information on El Nino and its global impacts you can visit the Climate Prediction Center website at www.cpc.noaa.gov