*credit to owners for pictures*
So its just been reported that the world will be facing an El Nino. So what exactly is an El Nino. This really did puzzle me for a while but I finally found out!
An introduction...
An El Nino is a temporary change in the climate of the Pacific ocean which occurs in the region around the equator. This causes the ocean surface to warm up and places where thunderstorms normally occur, it moves easterly.
And what really causes such a phenomenon?
Normally winds are blown from east to west along the equator. This then piles water up in thw west part of the Pacific. In the eastern side, cool deeper water gets pulled up from below which then replaces the water which was pushed westerly. In simple words, warm water of around 30 degree celcius in the westerly side and cold water of around 22 degree celcius in the easterly side.
In an El Nino, winds pushing the water gets weaker. This results in some warm water which is piled up in the west which goes back down to the east side, and not much cold water gets pulled up from below. This then causes water in the eastern Pacific to get warmer. Not only does it affect the temperature of the water in the Pacific but also causes the winds to be weaker!! If winds get weaker, oceans will remain warm and this is known as a positive feedback and how El Nino is all started.
How does El Nino affect the world?
So the El Nino season is back. What risk can the world be looking to during this season? Well due to the warmer climate, the risk of forest fires will increase. This would cause such a problem to which ever country it occurs in. In the first lesson of our geography lesson with Ken, we all learnt how geography can relate to us as individuals. the 4 factors are social, political, economic and cultural.
With the high risk of forest fires ocurring, these 4 factors can affect a certain country.
Social: Many lives and houses will be destroyed
Political: Government would need to inject alot of funds to help rebuild destroyed houses and properties
Economic: Business would not be able to run, income and economy for the country will drop
Cultural: Different races can come together and help each other and also neighbouring countries can lend a helping hand
Due to the hotter temperatures, drier conditions and stronger winds, the risk of haze will increase causing pollution for a country. Crops will be affected such as sugar, soya bean, rice which are produced by India and this is due to the expected drought which may hit India causing poor harvest. Drought is also expected in Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, West America and Philipines which would affect the wheat, palm oil, cocoa and rice respectively. This would then lead to a high demand of food as these countries are invovled in the exportation of their goods to other countries around the world. This would not be a very positive factor especially during this economic downturn the whole world is experiencing now.
This is a chart showing the El Nino slowly developing which was uploaded on the net just 2 days ago.
*credits to owner for picture*
This is the newspaper cut out on Saturday July 11 from The Straits Times showing the normal and El Nino year climate pattern.
On a normal year
During an El Nino year
*credits to website and The Straits Times for information*-Sharmaine(: