دیکشنری

EL NINO

The world's largest weather system is over the Pacific Ocean. There is a high-pressure system over the Eastern Pacific. This causes winds to blow toward the wet low-pressure system over Indonesia. All of this causes the ocean currents to move toward the west. These currents cause warm water to pile up in the Western Pacific.( If you blow across the top of a cup of coffee, the coffee piles up on the opposite side of the cup. The same thing happens with the ocean currents

Every four to ten years, something happens to this weather system. Everything changes, and scientists don't understand why. The low-pressure area moves toward the east, the high-temperature is very weak, and the winds blow toward the east. A great pile of warm surface water moves toward South America

People call this " El Nino " . It usually happens at Christmas time, and El Nino is the spanish name for the baby Jesus

Usually the effects of El Nino are very mild. However, the one that started in 1982 was different from the other recent ones. It had a very powerful effect on the world's climate. It caused huge changes in the ocean currents. It caused floods in some areas and droughts in others. There were terrible windstorms and huge ocean waves. These waves swept houses into the sea. El Nino did billions of dollars worth of damage. Thousands of people lost their lives and thousands of others were left homeless

In 1983, the winds, ocean currents, and pressure areas started to become normal again. Meanwhile, scientists throughout the world organized research to learn more about El Nino. They are using satellites and research boats to observe the atmosphere and the ocean. It is a very complicated problem, but if the scientists of the world work together, they should be able to learn the causes of El Nino. Then they will be able to predict what will happen and work to prevent a repeat of the death and destruction of 1982-1983

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