In the News
Environmental Outlook: Concerns About The Unique Warming Trends In The Pacific Ocean
Above-average temperatures are being recorded across the Pacific Ocean. Scientists say climate change is likely partly to blame. Yet researchers are still figuring how warming trends unique to this body of water are interacting. The current El Nino could be one of the strongest ever recorded. And scientists say a decades-long cycle of heating and cooling, could be switching to a warming phase. Other climatologists are monitoring a strange zone of warm water off of North America. For this month’s Environmental Outlook: Guest host Indira Lakshmanan talks with a panel of guests about warming in the Pacific Ocean and effects on weather patterns and marine life.
Cutbacks in Japan Mean Fewer El Nino-Watching Buoys in Pacific
The lens the world uses to watch for El Ninos has become a bit fuzzier after Japan cut by about half the number of buoys in the western Pacific that monitor changes in the ocean. It will take another four to five offline next year.
BBC Discovery - El Nino
Floods in South America, fires in Indonesia, famine threatened in Ethiopia, yet more drought in Southern Africa and central America. Plus, a stunning peak in global temperatures for 2015. The current El Nino, just past its peak, has a lot to answer for. Roland Pease talks to the experts.
Major El Niño Study Now Underway
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA have teamed up on a major study of El Niño. A potentially record El Niño is underway in the Pacific and has already altered weather around the world.
Hunting the Godzilla El Niño
As a massive El Niño warming builds in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, researchers hope to make the most of their chance to study this havoc-wreaking phenomenon.
El Niño Predictions: What Went Wrong in 2014?
Weather and climate researchers predicted a strong El Niño in 2014. It failed to manifest. This year, El Niño is back and stronger than ever. What happened?
More Super El Niños Could Decimate Pacific Corals
The long list of maladies attributed to El Niño continues to grow. In addition to affecting weather patterns around the world, the climate phenomenon also has a profound impact on ocean levels in the Pacific that can hurt coral reefs.
Research to Measure Cost of Climate Change, Improve Prediction of Severe Weather
New research appearing online today in the journal Nature Climate Change by NOAA and partners forecasts the effects of climate change on countries' economic output and suggests that rising greenhouse gases may contribute to more extreme El Niños.
Our Weather: El Nino Meets 'The Blob' — But Will It Help?
There's El Nino, and then there's "the blob." Both are phenomena associated with warm water in the Pacific. Both could have some impact on the weather, including building hopes for a big winter that might help pull the West out of protracted drought.
El Niño meets 'The Blob'
It sounds like a horror movie: "El Niño Meets The Blob." But it is really two forces of nature, getting ready to impact Oregon at the same time. And no one knows what will happen.
Latest Report: El Niño Continues to Bulk Up in the Pacific — and It May Get a Boost From the Pacific’s Surge of Cyclones
The El Niño once regarded as “El Wimpo” is getting ever stronger, and it’s likely to peak in late fall or early winter as one of the more brawny ones on record.
How the Super El Nino of 1982-83 Kept Itself a Secret
The term “El Nino” has become as much a part of our weather vocabulary as the words “super cell” or “derecho.” Today, we find it amazing to learn that when one of the strongest El Ninos of the Century brought damaging storms to California with heavy snow and flooding rain during the winter of 1982-83 no one was talking about El Nino.
Washington Climatologist Already Foresees Warm Winter
A strengthening El Nino suggests Washington will have another warm winter, possibly deepening the state’s drought, State Climatologist Nick Bond said Monday. “The odds are for a warmer and drier winter overall,” he said. “And a lower than normal snowpack at the end of it.”
El Niño? Yes. Gully-Washing Winter? Well, Maybe
Like a magical chant, we’re saying: “Hope rises for a strong El Niño.” Again and again. Last year, we hoped for it. Big time. In 2013, there was no Niño, but we were hoping with gusto in 2012.
Predicting El Niño Then and Now
There has been a lot of excitement this past year about the development of El Niño-like conditions in the tropical Pacific. From the available observations and current seasonal forecast models, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center predicted beginning in March 2014 that it was on its way.