ENSO, or the El Niñ0 Southern Oscillation, is the term for both halves of the oscillation in the eastern Pacific Ocean known as El Niño (for unusually warm water) and La Niña (unusually cold water). Since we are near the peak of a strong El Niñ0 but are expected to decline and perhaps swing to a La Niña next summer, there have been many stories about them in the news.
EarthSky published an article describing the appearance of many El Niño impacts across the world in recent weeks. NASA used satellites to monitor temperature and precipitation across the globe and the clear impacts of El Niño are being seen in many places.
After the El Niño ends, a swing to La Niña is likely. I’ve talked about this before in the blog, and now AgWeb has also published an article describing some of the likely impacts on agriculture if this happens. While the strongest impacts in late summer will be felt north of the Southeast region, we are likely to experience drier than normal conditions except in areas that are affected by tropical storms, which could be more numerous than usual next year.
