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El Niņo
Mon Jun 23, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook.
As this year's weak El Niņo winds down, we wondered about when the term first became
familiar. It may have been on the evening news, or even on Jay Leno, but for most folks it
probably happened about five years ago.
That's when one of the strongest El Niņos on record set up in the tropical Pacific.
The El Niņo of 1997-98 caused severe impacts around the globe, but it was a success
story for meteorologists, because many of the impacts were forecast months ahead of time.
That wasn't the case for the other big El Niņo of the 20th century.
In 1982, most of the scientists who studied the then little-known El Niņo phenomenon
weren't expecting one to show up that year. But by the winter of 82-83, the water in parts of
the eastern Pacific was over 9 degrees Fahrenheit above average. That helped pull showers and
storms further east than usual, and the chain reaction of events made headlines around the
world.
California got plastered with gales and floods. Australia had a devastating drought and some
of its worst fires on record. On the plus side, it was the quietest hurricane year measured
in the Atlantic up to that point. Because the El Niņo of 1982-83 snuck up on people so
quietly, yet caused such havoc, it was like a Pearl Harbor for the weather world.
Meteorologists quickly mobilized with a ten-year program to study the tropical Pacific. They
sprinkled instruments on buoys floating along the equator, so now we can keep an eye on El
Niņo and La Niņa from the moment they start to take shape.
Today's show was contributed by meteorologist Bob Henson. The Weather Notebook is funded by
Subaru of America and The National Science Foundation.
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