What Is El Nino? | What Causes El Nino?

WeatherBrains | | Post Tag for BrainsBrains

What is El Nino?  This is a great question for a North American to ask.  El Nino is hyped, pumped, and referred to ceaselessly in our region.  Despite feeling very familiar with weather and weather patterns, we here at SnowBrains didn’t actually know what exactly caused El Nino.  After watching this video, now we do.

We never realized that El Nino and La Nina are principally caused by weakening or strengthening of the east blowing equatorial winds.  Why didn’t someone (NOAA?) just tell us that before!?  So simple!

el nino
A satellite image shows the sea surface temperature in October 2015, with the orange-red colors indicating above-normal temperatures that are indicative of El Niño. image: noaa

There’s no two ways about it, PBS rules.  This video made by PBS will teach you a ton you didn’t know about El Nino, chaos theory, and weather prediction on Earth.

...the niño... , el nino
…the niño…

 


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