It is really irritating when someone says weather has changed because of more El Niño events, like these are things that just happen on a whim. Global warming will have to change the pattern of El Niño/La Niña cycles, because they are caused by temperature changes in the Pacific ocean.http://www.nbcnews.com/science/be-prepared-extreme-el-nino-events-double-study-says-2D11947406
John Roach NBC News
Jan. 19, 2014
During February 1998, a powerful jet stream pounded California with an unrelenting series of wet Pacific storms. Longstanding rainfall records fell. Oceanfront homes slumped into the roiling surf. Roads washed out across the state. Federal disaster areas were declared in 35 counties. At least 17 people died. The Red Cross opened 79 shelters and fed more than 100,000 people.
The culprit? An extreme El Niño, a phenomenon triggered by a warming of waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean that shifts weather patterns around the world.
El Niño's ills weren't confined to California: In 1997-98, torrential rains washed away villages in northern Peru, heat waves rolled across Australia, and massive peat-bog fires cloaked Indonesia in a thick haze. All told, the impacts caused upwards of $45 billion in global economic losses and claimed an estimated 23,000 lives.
Given the damage from such extreme El Niño events, scientists are anxious to determine how their frequency and intensity will change as the planet warms. Past efforts have been frustratingly inconclusive. But now, new research is bringing a new approach to the problem — and finding that the frequency of extreme El Niño events akin to the 1997-98 episode should double in response to greenhouse warming.
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