I have heard it in many news channels and on internet that 2024 is gonna be a el-niño year but what is it exactly, I have studied about this in my pre school but don’t remember it exactly.
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El Niño and La Niña are years long Pacific Ocean temperature changes that become most pronounced around Christmas and change the regional weather patterns of north and South America most and global weather patterns generally.
This pattern affected how the Mayans and Incans built cities but was given the name El Niño by the Spanish (the original full name was “El Niño de Navidad”
El Niño is a diminishing of the westerly trade winds in the pacific leading to a much warmer south pacific that leads to increased rain and flooding (this flooding is what drove the building pattern changes of the Maya and Inca).
La Niña is the opposite, a strengthening of the westerly trade winds leading to a cooling of the southern Pacific Ocean due to increased upwelling of cold water from the deep ocean. La Niña leads to dryer winters in the south west and wetter winters in the Pacific Northwest due to the jet stream changes.
From past years we know what to expect for long term forecasts and things like snow fall over the western mountains. It’s useful for long term forecasting and planning but from a day to day over the winter, it will just be “weird” weather for most people.
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