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What are El Niño, La Niña, and ENSO? |
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Written by Prof. Dr. Joachim Willms [Managing Director]
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Near the end of each calendar year, ocean surface temperatures warm along the coasts of Ecuador and northern Peru. In the past, local residents referred to this annual warming as “El Niño,” meaning “The Child,” due to its appearance around the Christmas season. The appearance of El Niño signified the end of the
fishing season and the arrival of the time for Peruvian fishermen to repair their nets and maintain their boats.
Every two to seven years a much stronger warming appears along the west coast of South America, which lasts for several months and is often accompanied by heavy rainfall in the arid coastal regions of Ecuador and northern Peru. Over time the term El Niño began to be used in reference to these major warm episodes.
During the 1960s, scientists began to link the abnormally warm waters along the west coast of South America with abnormally warm waters throughout the central and east-central equatorial Pacific. In addition, the warmer than average waters were shown to be closely related to a global atmospheric pressure oscillation known as the Southern Oscillation.
More information about El Niño, La Niña, and ENSO can be found in the National Weather Service (NWS, USA) factsheet HERE!
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TF: Hazards & Risks 
