What Is El Nino And What Kind Of Weather Disruption Is It Credited With?

El Nino which means "boy child or Christ child" is the name given to irregular strong currents both warm and cold occurring in the water in and around the Pacific region. The exact cause of this variation is still somewhat of a mystery to scientists. El Nino phenomenon can be explained this way:


When a body of water heats up like the ocean, its surface beings to evaporate and the air above it gets saturated with moisture and heat. This hot air then rises carrying its moisture with it, a process we call convection. Now once the hot air has risen it begins to cool down and precipitation occurs (rain, hail, snow), a normal process. This usually happens in areas where the water is naturally warm. But what would happen if this entire sequence were to happen in an area where this kind of a cycle is not common? When this process is reversed in areas not used to adapt to such occurrences the result will be floods in dry areas and droughts in wet areas. Simple put this is the El Nino effect.

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