El Nino and La Nina
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ABC News posted a story today about the severe drought in South Africa. In the last week 11 people have died from heatstroke associated with record-setting high temperatures in the dry conditions. One farmer reported that he has already lost $60,000 this season because he has not been able to plant a single seed. He…
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If you are looking for ways to explain El Niño to producers or your parents or children, you might be interested in two recent resources on El Niño that I found online. The World Meteorological Organization has a simple 3-minute video tutorial which explains what El Niño is and how it affects global climate at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v92Iqihct98.…
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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…
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AL.com posted a story yesterday with the title above looking ahead to the future as El Niño reaches its peak intensity and starts to decline. What happens after a strong El Niño starts to fade? Keep in mind that it will take months for the mass of unusually warm water in the Eastern Pacific Ocean…
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The heavy rains that fell in southern Florida this past week wiped out the last remaining pocket of moderate drought in the Southeast as well as put a dent in the areas of abnormally dry conditions. Hard to believe that just three months ago more than half the region was abnormally dry or worse, and…
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The media has been proclaiming the current very strong El Niño to be potentially record-setting, with the sea surface temperature values tied with the 1997-98 very strong event. But as Emily Becker shows in the latest NOAA El Niño blog, it’s not quite that simple. Her blog post discusses the different methods for calculating the…
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El Niño rains have affected production areas for strawberries in both California and Florida in recent weeks, and the continued rainy conditions predicted for the next few months are expected to affect the availability of strawberries for the next few months. You can read the article in The Packer at https://www.thepacker.com/news/strawberry-prices-likely-remain-high-el-nino-looms.