Everything I find is a bit too confusing or leaves out too much or whatever it is that I’m just not getting it, but it sounds bad
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Will actually try to explain like I would to a 5 year old, all the replies are great but somewhat more technical.
Think of two little kids playing tug of war, except instead of one straight rope, they are each on one end of a lasso loop. They are ALWAYS playing tug of war in this lasso, and as they are playing the rope rotates around them.
When El Niño strengthens, that kids side of the lasso gets warmer, creating ripples in the rope that change the shape and pattern of the rope (changing the shape and patterns of the weather). When La Niña strengthens, that other kids side of the rope cools down the heating that was occurring on El Niños side. Sometimes, in between these two kids battling, they both take a break, and we call this neutral, not much is happening.
This always happens and is super normal. What’s not normal is the amount of strength that El Niño is exerting nowadays to warm up their side of the rope, and in return, La Niña seems to be also using more strength as well. The strength these two kids are using is changing how much the shape and pattern of the rope goes through. When we were used to seeing “normal” strength, we could predict the pattern or shape the rope/lasso would take and how long it could stay there. Now that the kids are using more strength, we’re not able to guess what the rope/lasso will look like (this is the problem, strong El Niño and La Niña patterns create weather chaos) and when/if it potentially snaps, we really have no idea what’s going to happen afterwards. Will it bounce back? Can the rope be repaired? If another rope is used, will it behave in the same or similar way?
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