These ocean buoys are providing an exact real-time, picture of the ocean surface. Detailed information made the 1997 El Niño a great test case for climatologists.
Image courtesy of NOAA.
The 1997-1998 El Niño (remember the graph on the first page of this module) was a major topic of attention for a simple reason: "It was big in terms of sea-surface temperature," says Kevin Trenberth, who studies El Niños at the Climate
Analysis
Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. And how would he
know? He got the information from a set
of buoys that track conditions in the Pacific.
The magnitude of the ENSO is measured by sea level pressure, surface wind, surface air and sea temperature and cloudiness. Want some history of El Niño? In excruciating detail? Try this page.
Want today's winds and temperatures from the Pacific?
Big or small, why care about El Niño? Because it affects our weather, our economy, sometimes even our lives. Remember Hurricane Pauline, the one that devastated Acapulco, Mexico in 1998? It was strongly linked to the abnormally warm temperatures caused by the 1998 El Niño in the eastern Pacific, Trenberth says. Remember the poisonous smog that choked major cities in Southeast Asia? Those fires were characteristic of El Niño-induced droughts.
Yet we must caution you that nothing is certain when it comes to weather. El Niño is a major influence, not a determinant, meaning you're likely to get more storms here and fewer storms there, but you can't bank on it. Still, weather is always uncertain, and El Niño is shaping up to be the best-understood influence on it.
It hasn't rained in weeks. Must be El Niño, right?
