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Tag: El Niño 2014

  • Record Early Snowfall: Winter Is Coming

    Just when you thought you’d gotten the memory of a ceaseless winter out of your minds, here comes a story to remind you that it all has to happen again.

    A record-early snowfall has hit parts of the Midwestern United States.

    On Thursday morning, snow fell in parts of Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado. This represents the earliest that snow has fallen in the United States outside of winter.

    This wasn’t exactly a polite “dusting” either.

    In one region of South Dakota, it was reported to have snowed as much as eight inches. Seven inches of snow was said to have fallen at Mount Rushmore.

    How much snow reportedly fell in portions of northern Wyoming?

    Try eighteen inches.

    Even if you aren’t currently digging out (and 11 days before summer officially ends at that), it has to be somewhat depressing knowing that this crazy weather will be coming to a snow shovel near you within the coming weeks.

    Especially since this year’s winter is supposed to be a precipitation-heavy affair. While this can mean rain, it also means that frequent snowfall is likely.

    Blame it on the “El Nino” weather phenomenon.

    This is when unusually warm Pacific Ocean water temperatures have an impact on North American weather patterns.

    Scientists have already compared it to the conditions seen in 1997. The “Super El Nino” of the late nineties brought with it heavy snowfall and ice storms.

    It’s very possible that we could be getting a repeat nearly two decades later.

    As such, you may want to start preparing for the inconvenient weather NOW.

    Though summer isn’t over and you probably don’t want to think about how cold you’re going to be a few weeks from now.

    Just remember that no one was ever sorry to be prepared for cold weather and winter snow storms!

  • El Niño 2014 Might Become a Repeat of 1997

    El Niño 2014 Might Become a Repeat of 1997

    NASA satellite imaging of the Pacific Ocean has revealed data that resembles the conditions which fostered the record-breaking El Niño year of 1997.

    El Niño, which is Spanish for “the boy,” with the capitalized version meaning “Christ Child,” is a system of abnormally high seawater temperatures that develops off the Pacific coast of South America, leading to extreme weather across the Pacific Ocean.

    The NASA/French Space Agency Jason-2 satellite scans the world’s oceans every ten days, measuring changes in sea surface height, along with heat levels in the upper layers of the water. Lately, Jason-2 has presented data from the Pacific that looks a lot like it did in 1997.

    Here is a documentary which describes how researchers attempt to predict El Niño patterns:

    Jason-2 has been detecting a series of Kelvin waves, which are large ripples at sea level that travel across the Pacific from Australia to South America. Kelvin waves are good indicators of El Niño, and both phenomena are linked by wind. Trade winds in the Pacific blow from east to west, which push sun-warmed surface waters toward Indonesia. As a result, the sea level around Indonesia is typically 45 centimeters higher than it is near Ecuador. This area is called the warm pool, and is the largest reservoir of warm water on earth.

    Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, commented that “a pattern of sea surface heights and temperatures has formed that reminds me of the way the Pacific looked in the spring of 1997. That turned out to precursor to a big El Niño.”

    Mike McPhaden of NOAA’s Pacific Environmental Research Laboratories in Seattle added, “We can’t yet say for sure that an El Niño will develop in 2014, or how big it might be, but the Jason-2 data support the El Niño Watch issued last month by NOAA.”

    The NOAA and NASA are meticulously monitoring the Pacific trade winds. It will become much more clear in the coming few months whether these recent developments are the forerunner of a major El Niño, or any El Niño at all.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons