El+Nino+(1997-98)

El Niño- Kurtis Cathey

El Niño is a storm that comes after the trade winds either change or reduce in speed. This causes the oceans to change, mostly the reservoir of hot water changes. The hot water becomes evenly spaced out through the ocean, and this causes a drastic change in weather on either sides of the ocean, ultimately causing a lot of damage. This is known as the Southern Oscillation. The warm water normally stays around the eastern coast of Australia, and because of the Trade winds, which blow from the east to the west; the water is blown to one side of the Pacific. In El Nino the Trade winds become westerlies, and the pool of warm water is blown out to the western coast of South America. The name El Niño means "Christ's Child," it was given this name because the event occurs during the celebration of the Christ's birthday.

= Movement of Water: =

==

In January of '97 the water levels are normal; the pool of hot water is where it is supposed to be near the Eastern coast of Australia. In June of '97 you can start to see that the trade winds are slacking,and the hot water begins to even out across the ocean. In November of '97 it becomes obvious that the trade winds have changed to Westerlies, and now most of the hot water is on the West coast of Southern America. Finally, in March of '98 the trade winds begin to return to normal and the hot water begins to return to Australia.

= El Niño of 1997-1998: =

One day in 1997 a storm starting to grow in the Tropical Pacific. This storm would be known as the ENSO (El Niño/ Southern Oscillation.) This was the first ENSO that we were able to track with the new buoy system placed in the Pacific because of the damages of the 82-83 ENSO. The storm caused a wide variety of weather patterns all around the world. Peru is always hit by ENSO, and this time the storm was bigger than most have ever seen. It would be the cause of death for an estimated 2,100 people, and $33 billion U.S. dollars in damage, in the eight months it was alive. Some places in Peru had five to six inches of rain a day. Normally Peru is a dry, arid country. Normally Peru is an area of high pressure, this is changed during the storm. When the river bank was flooded everything was destroyed, house where taken from the ground, and people taken from their families. In this year, places farther from the coast that don't normally feel the effects of the event, had their homes destroyed. All of the water pooling up in Peru brought mosquitoes, Malaria became a problem. The Damage did not stay in Peru though. Areas around Indonesia and including Indonesia suffered months of drought. This Caused forest fires. The smoke traveled west and coated the usually beautiful sky above the Maldives Islands with a layer of smoke. The ocean changes as well. As the warm water begins to even out over the Pacific Ocean it begins to evaporate. Then the water begins to pour down on Peru. This causes the ocean to become more pure (less salt.) This causes the upwelling of cooler water to stop. The warm, less nutrient enriched water caused marine wild life to flee to cooler waters down south. The Peruvian coast's economy was destroyed before, and after the storm (until the marine wildlife returned to the coast.) Anchovies are everything to the Peruvian economy. Finally, places like Australia, Indonesia, and India receive the exact opposite weather as Peru. These areas are normally a low pressured, but it changes to high pressure in the storm. These areas become very dry, and deal with a drought for months. The drought is another cause of death in the time of an ENSO.

= Damage: =

The 1997-98 El Niño caused the death of 2,100 people. These deaths came from droughts and fires and disease in places like Australia, Central America, Indonesia, and India. Also from floods, and disease in place

It caused $33 billion U.S. Dollars in damage. About $2.6 Billion was destroyed consisting of just Peruvian infrastructure.s like South America, and other island nations in the South Pacific. Disease lingered on after the storm and continued to kill people in places like Peru. It also caused a lot of damage to the Peruvian economy, by taking away their anchovies for a long period of time. They are not expected to reach a steady amount of income from anchovies for years.


 * > Here you can see in 1997, and 1983 the drop in anchovies. These years are time of El Niño storms. ||

= Causes: =

Scientists do not really know why this happens. The winds normally travel towards the east in that band of the Earth. During this time the winds switch, or slack and then everything begins to happen. Why doesn't this happen at these latitudes up north? Scientists just don't know.

1982-83 El Niño:

This storm was a lot less devastating than the storm in 1982-83. This storm was known about before it happened. The TAO Arrays allowed for us to track the high water temperature in the Pacific ocean. The array consists of a large number of buoys, spread around the Pacific Ocean. These buoys constantly read water levels and temperatures, looking for warm water traveling towards the Peruvian coast.



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Works Cited

"1997-98 El Nino Event." Usgcrp. Web. 29 May 2012. Netting, Ruth. "El Nino - An Introduction." El Nino - An Introduction. NASA, 22 Jan. 2003. Web. 29 May 2012.

"NOAA/PMEL/TAO: The El Niño Story." NOAA. Web. 04 June 2012.

Lyman, Eric J. "1999 Red Cross World Disaster Report: El Nino and La Nina -- the Pacific's Deadly Duo." //1999 Red Cross // //World Disaster Report: El Nino and La Nina -- the Pacific's Deadly Duo //. 1999. Web. 04 June 2012.

Pierce, David W. "What Is an El Niño, Anyway?" What Is an El Niño, Anyway? Scripps Institution of Technology, 25 June 1997. Web. 29 May 2012.

Suplee, Curt. "El Niño/La Niña Nature’s Vicious Cycle." National Geographic Magazine. National Geographic, May 1998. Web. 29 May 2012.

"Thai Rubber Industry Plans to Bounce Back from El Niño." CABI Blog. 23 Feb. 2007. Web. 29 May 2012.