One of the most prominent aspects of our weather and climate is its variability. This
variability ranges over many time and space scales, from small-scale phenomena such as
wind gusts, localized thunderstorms and tornadoes, to larger-scale features such as fronts
and storms, to even more prolonged features such as droughts and floods, and to
fluctuations occurring on multi-seasonal, multi-year, multi-decade and even multi-century
time scales. Some examples of these longer time-scale fluctuations include an abnormally
hot and dry summer, an abnormally cold and snowy winter, a consecutive series of
abnormally mild or exceptionally severe winters, and even a mild winter followed by a
severe winter. In general, the longer time-scale phenomena are often associated with
changes in the atmospheric circulation that encompass areas far larger than a particular
affected region. At times, these persistent circulation features occur simultaneously over
vast, and seemingly unrelated, parts of the hemisphere, or even the globe, and result in
abnormal weather, temperature and rainfall patterns throughout the world. During the past
several decades, scientists have discovered that important aspects of this interannual
variability in global weather patterns are linked to a global-scale, naturally occurring
phenomenon known as the El Niņo/ Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle. The terms El Niņo
and La Niņa represent opposite extremes of the ENSO cycle.
|