El Niño

• El Niño is a variation in the ocean and atmospheric temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. When the ocean temperature increases it causes ocean currents to reverse direction and can impact the weather in Latin America in many different ways.

El Niño

• In Central America, El Niño leads to excessive rainfall along the Caribbean coasts, while the Pacific coasts will remain dry.

• Rainfall increases on the coasts of Ecuador, the northern part of Peru, and southern zones of Chile.

• In Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia there will be drought in the mountainous and Andean zones, implying retreat of glaciers with subsequent changes in the availability of water and in local biodiversity.

El Niño

• In Colombia, Venezuela and Guyana precipitation will tend to be reduced, leading to drought in the Brazilian northeast.

• In Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay rainfall will increase and there will be a rise in temperatures in the southern part of Brazil

• El Niño was originally recognized in the 1800’s by fisherman off the coast of South America as the appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific ocean, occurred near the beginning of the year.

El Niño literally means The Little Boy (or Christ Child) in Spanish. This name was used for the tendency of the phenomenon to arrive around Christmas time.

Sea level and the thermocline flatten to near-horizontal

When El Niño awakens

• During El Nino

1. Westerly wind bursts at the western end of the Pacific allow the warm water to drift eastward into the central Pacific. The trade winds weaken.

2. Atmospheric convection, and the storm zone, move eastward with the warm water. Heavy rainfall floods coastal areas of western South America. 3. As the thermocline deepens, cold water no longer up-wells off the coasts of Chile and Peru. The surface waters are warmer. Nutrients disappear & fish dwindle.