As we've been learning, we have began to become one of the hottest years on record. For this, we can thank El Nino, which seems to also be the strongest one we've had in awhile.
El Niño refers to the periodic warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that brings sea surface temperatures above average. These conditions can last up to a year or more. This also leads to some atmospheric changes with a wide variety of affects that can be noticed globally.
In a news release issued on November 16, the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Center warned that “this naturally occurring El Niño event and human induced climate change may interact and modify each other in ways which we have never before experienced.”
The only El Niño events in NOAA’s 1950-2015 database comparable in strength to the one now developing occurred in 1982-83 and 1997-98!!!
-Therese Latimer
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