Tag Archives: La Niña

NASA GISS: 2011 9th-warmest year on record – hot for a strong La Niña

Graph of the day: world temperature record between 1880 and 2011, showing annual and 5-year mean temperature, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) data. Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, Robert Simmon.

He who controls ENSO rules all: even flu pandemics now connected to La Niña – 2012 virus forecast

If this is true best stack up on your supply of antiviral drugs, because there would be an above-average chance of experiencing another influenza pandemic during the approaching northern hemisphere spring or summer of 2012 (as indeed La Niña is … Continue reading →

Strong re-emergence of La Niña off northern Queensland coast – SST anomalies again up to 2-3 degrees – above average rains for weeks to come

With the current La Niña strongly in place at the onset of the Australian monsoon and reaching predicted optimum strength at the height of the rainy season the risk of experiencing a repeat of the Queensland floods of 2010-2011 is … Continue reading →

Droughts in Horn of Africa have been common for last 20,000 years

This year’s catastrophic drought in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia is thought to be an indirect consequence of the 2010-2011 La Niña. As part of ENSO cycles such droughts come and go – and have been typical for the region … Continue reading →

Missing heat 2000-2009 indeed deeper in ocean, says NCAR model

As a regular of Bitsofscience.org you may recall a publication on ocean warming [between 2003-2010] in Geophysical Research Letters from last July. That one was little-noticed by the world’s media, but now its findings may receive more attention, as an … Continue reading →

Lull in upper ocean warming explained through ENSO – warming trend continues

Shortly after an El Niño event there is elevated heat exchange from the upper ocean layers to the cosmos over the tropical Pacific Ocean. In the North Atlantic Ocean, variations in the ocean circulation affect the heat exchange to the … Continue reading →