Question: How hard can El Nino phenomenon affect Americas?

Asked by rafael101 to Alice, Andi, Bas, Daniel, Rhian on 9 Mar 2015.

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  1. Photo: Alice MarzocchiAlice Marzocchi
    answered on 9 Mar 2015:

    Hi!
    An El Nino event will have very different effects on different parts of North and South America.
    The effect of El Nino in South America is particularly hard for some coastal countries, such as Peru and Ecuador (this is where the name of this phenomenon actually originated, given by the local fishermen). In these areas the effect of an El Nino event is devastating for the local fishing economy, because of to the lack of fish. Animals will also suffer from the scarcity of food.
    Here instead are some examples of effects of El Nino in North America:
    – In California there is an increased risk of storms, flooding, and landslides. This can impact agriculture and sometimes also threaten human lives.
    – There is increased snowfall in the Rockies and Sierra Nevada in the USA, but on the contrary Western Canada experiences generally warmer temperatures and reduced snowfall.
    – The hurricane season in the Atlantic is reduced but the tornado season is instead more active.

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  2. Photo: Andreas RudersdorfAndreas Rudersdorf
    answered on 10 Mar 2015:

    Just to add a little bit:

    The El Nino phenomenon is some kind of regular and happens every some years (like every seven to eleven years, I think) and can be stronger or weaker from time to time. The people of the Americas expect the El Nino to come, but it is really hard to prepare for these events, because you cannot really tell when the drought or the heavy rains, for example, are over…

    All the best,
    Andi

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  3. Photo: Rhian MearaRhian Meara
    answered on 19 Mar 2015:

    Great answers from Alice and Andi so nothing much more i can add! 🙂

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Comments

  1. Photo: AliceAlice
    commented on 10 Mar 2015:

    I was just reading this interesting news article, so I thought you might also find it interesting: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27098-mighty-el-nino-is-back–heres-what-you-need-to-know.html#.VP8JWtN_tpJ
    I knew that forecasters were predicting an El Nino event in 2014 or 2015, but now it has been officially recognised as such since early March.
    Researchers think this is going to be a particularly intense and long one, so we will have to wait and see what the effects are, hopefully not too catastrophic.

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