Caption: A composite image by NASA of water levels in the Pacific Ocean for early November, 2009. The water level is an indication of the temperature of the surface water, with higher levels indicating higher temperatures. The expanded El Nino is the big red blob that starts at the west coast of Mexico and stretches toward the equator.Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory
According to a recent NASA Earth Observatory image of the day, the El Nino's going to be big and honkin' this winter:
El Niño is experiencing a late-fall resurgence. Recent measurements of sea level height from the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 oceanography satellite showed that a strong wave of warm water, known as a Kelvin wave, had spread from the western to the central and eastern Pacific. This warm wave appears as the large area of higher-than-normal sea surface heights in the area between 170 degrees east and 100 degrees west longitude.
El Nino Resurging in November 2009
For those of us on the west coast of North America, this should mean a wetter and somewhat warmer winter than last year. For others, it will mean dryer weather:
Severe droughts in India have always occurred in El Niño years, yet every El Niño does not cause monsoon failure and drought — a mystery that researchers have been struggling to crack.
Accurate monsoon prediction is crucial to India's economy: nearly one-fifth of the country's gross domestic product comes from agriculture. Even moderate crop failures have severe economic and societal impacts.
Scientists Solve Riddle Of El Niño And Indian Monsoon
So, maybe bad for India, but good for California:
Although El Niño means drought in some parts of the world, in other places it can bring drought relief. “In the American West, where we are struggling under serious drought conditions, this late-fall charge by El Niño is a pleasant surprise, upping the odds for much needed rain and an above-normal winter snowpack,” said oceanographer Bill Patzert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
El Nino Resurging in November 2009
While it's sad that droughts will happen elsewhere, and we have all the rain we need up here in the Pacific Northwest, California can certainly use the change.
2 comments:
Warmer - yay! Wetter - boo!
One thing we don't typically need here is more wetness. There have been dry winters, though, and the following summers have generally been the summers where water rationing was necessary.
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