Few weather phenomena can match El Ni\u00f1o for its impact on where, when and how heavily rain will fall. Drought-ending for some and catastrophic for others, the El Ni\u00f1o of 2015 is shaping up to be as dramatic as the record El Ni\u00f1o of 1997, according to information from the National Weather Service reported by WUSF News 89.7 of Tampa, Florida. <\/p>\n
The El Ni\u00f1o event this year could lift California out of drought, experts say, or it could force Indonesia and the Philippines into desperately dry conditions. El Ni\u00f1o\u2019s effects elsewhere could include hurricanes, floods and mudslides.<\/p>\n
The predictions of all NWS computer models point to a huge El Ni\u00f1o event this year and the signal from the Pacific Ocean seems unusually strong. Late fall or early winter are expected to be peak times. It may even last until early spring. <\/p>\n
A temperature rise of about 1.5 degrees Celsius in Pacific equatorial surface waters usually accompanies El Ni\u00f1o, but computer models predict this year\u2019s event may see a temperature rise of as much as 3 degrees Celsius, which would be unprecedented. Such a temperature change would mean severe El Ni\u00f1o weather effects all over the Pacific.<\/p>\n
Top image:\u00a0Sea surface height anomalies for the Pacific Ocean basin between January and July of 2015. (Credit: NASA)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Few weather phenomena can match El Ni\u00f1o for its impact on where, when and how heavily rain will fall. Drought-ending for some and catastrophic for others, the El Ni\u00f1o of 2015 is shaping up to be as dramatic as the record El Ni\u00f1o of 1997, according to information from the National Weather Service reported by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":22971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7],"tags":[345,381,103,111],"class_list":["post-22977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-atmosphere","category-news","tag-earth-atmosphere","tag-enso","tag-news-2","tag-tropical-storms"],"remote_post_permalink":false,"remote_post_featured_image":false,"yoast_head":"\n