El Nino Akan Datang Kembali

NOAA scientists today announced the arrival of El Niño, a climatephenomenon with a significant influence on global weather, oceanconditions and marine fisheries. El Niño, the periodic warming ofcentral and eastern tropical Pacific waters, occurs on average everytwo to five years and typically lasts about 12 months.
NOAA expects this El Niño to continue developing during the nextseveral months, with further strengthening possible. The event isexpected to last through winter 2009-10.
“Advanced climate science allows us to alert industries, governmentsand emergency managers about the weather conditions El Niño may bringso these can be factored into decision-making and ultimately protectlife, property and the economy,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAAadministrator.
El Niño's impacts depend on a variety of factors, such as intensityand extent of ocean warming, and the time of year. Contrary to popularbelief, not all effects are negative. On the positive side, El Niñocan help to suppress Atlantic hurricane activity. In the UnitedStates, it typically brings beneficial winter precipitation to thearid Southwest, less wintry weather across the North, and a reducedrisk of Florida wildfires.
El Niño’s negative impacts have included damaging winter storms inCalifornia and increased storminess across the southern United States.Some past El Niños also have produced severe flooding and mudslides inCentral and South America, and drought in Indonesia.
An El Niño event may significantly diminish ocean productivity off thewest coast by limiting weather patterns that cause upwelling, ornutrient circulation in the ocean. These nutrients are the foundationof a vibrant marine food web and could negatively impact food sourcesfor several types of birds, fish and marine mammals.
In its monthly El Niño diagnostics discussion today, scientists withthe NOAA National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center notedweekly eastern equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures were atleast 1.0 degree C above average at the end of June. The most recentEl Niño occurred in 2006.
El Niño includes weaker trade winds, increased rainfall over thecentral tropical Pacific, and decreased rainfall in Indonesia. Thesevast rainfall patterns in the tropics are responsible for many of ElNiño’s global effects on weather patterns.
NOAA will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving situation in thetropical Pacific, and will provide more detailed information onpossible Atlantic hurricane impacts in its updated Seasonal HurricaneOutlook scheduled for release on August 6, 2009.
NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment, fromthe depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves andmanages our coastal and marine resources.

Source: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090709_elnino.html