Global Warming & El Niño |
 Dave Thurlow, Host |
There's a direct cause and effect between the earth's rising temperature and a whole slew of weather patterns. The connections between a warmer climate and abnormal weather are called teleconnections in the business. One of them-global warming and El Niño. Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow and this is The Weather Notebook.
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| Equatorial Pacific Ocean, January 1997 Water temperature profile |
In many parts of the world, circulation patterns flip back and forth between two, alternating regimes, every couple years or decades. The most familiar of these oscillations is, that's right, El Niño and La Niña. The result, Pacific sea-surface temperatures flip between warm and cold, which brings about changes in the weather worldwide.
For example, El Niño, with its warm waters causes floods, mudslides and tornadoes in the southern parts of the US. La Niña on the other hand, gives the central US very cold weather along with tornadoes, while the east is warm and tranquil, except for hurricane season.
Over the past 2 decades, El Niño has stepped up it's schedule, thanks to global warming. The time interval between El Niños depends on how long it takes to recharge the tropical system by reaccumulating heat at sea surface. Global warming just may enable the system to recharge faster, making El Niño appear more often.
So, it's the constant discovery of new found teleconnection in the intricate atmospheric web that shows what is of most concern, may yet to be even thought about.
The Weather Notebook is underwritten by Subaru, with major support provided by the National Science Foundation.
Northern Hemisphere Teleconnection Patterns
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