Table of Contents
Does El Niño have strong or weak trade winds?
El Niño (EN) is characterized by a large scale weakening of the trade winds and warming of the surface layers in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean.
Why does an El Niño or La Niña event affect the Atlantic hurricane season?
La Niña’s impact on the rest of hurricane season During La Niña, weaker winds between the ocean surface and upper levels of the atmosphere impact global jet streams and can influence the track and severity of winter storms and hurricanes during warmer months.
What is the role of El Niño in weakening monsoons?
El Nino affects the flow of moisture-bearing winds from the cooler oceans towards India, negatively impact the summer monsoon, which accounts for over 70\% of annual rainfall. IMD forecast models suggest that weak El Nino conditions are likely to persist in the early part of the summer and weaken thereafter.
What happens when the trade winds weaken what is this situation called?
During El Niño, when the trade winds are weak or even occasionally reverse themselves, the amount of cold water that comes to the surface is reduced. Warm waters in the west Pacific Ocean slosh to the east.
How does El Niño affect air pressure?
The Southern Oscillation is a change in air pressure over the tropical Pacific Ocean. When coastal waters become warmer in the eastern tropical Pacific (El Niño), the atmospheric pressure above the ocean decreases.
What weakened trade winds?
The air-sea interaction that occur during an El Niño event feed off of each other. As the pressure falls in the east and rises in the west, the surface pressure gradient is reduced and the trade winds weaken.
How does El Niño and La Niña affect the Atlantic and Pacific hurricane seasons?
More importantly, especially in the case of hurricanes, La Niña weakens high atmospheric winds, which allows warm air pockets to grow vertically and develop into hurricanes. The opposite occurs during an El Niño, which causes cool, dry, and atmospherically unfavorable conditions in the Atlantic.
Can El Niño occur in the Atlantic?
El Niño is a phenomenon where ocean surface temperatures become warmer than normal in the equatorial Pacific. In general, warm El Niño events are characterized by more tropical storms and hurricanes in the eastern Pacific and a decrease in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
What are the effects of El Nino and La Nina?
El Niño and La Niña affect not only ocean temperatures, but also how much it rains on land. Depending on which cycle occurs (and when), this can mean either droughts or flooding. Typically, El Niño and its warm waters are associated with drought, while La Niña is linked to increased flooding.
What happens when trade winds weaken?
The weakened trade winds allow warmer water from the western Pacific to surge eastward, so the sea level flattens out. This leads to a build up of warm surface water and a sinking of the thermocline in the eastern Pacific. The air-sea interaction that occur during an El Niño event feed off of each other.