One man's loss is another man's treasure.
The reigning El Nino has orchestrated consecutive droughts and brought unprecedented warmth to our winters. Elsewhere, the 'little boy' is helping to chip away at a mega drought that has California in its grip for the fifth year in a row.
In addition, the strongest El Nino on record is triggering weather events that are music to the ears of surfers and skiers in the US.
El Nino is the recurring occurrence of warmer than average waters in the central and east central Pacific. El Nino has no established connections with climate change but studies indicate strong correlations with various weather phenomenon across the globe. Drier India and Australia and wetter southwest US and northwest Mexico are some effects. Peru and Ecuador witness the most direct effect with widespread flooding during extreme El Nino events. The opposite of this occurrence is La Nina, meaning cooler than normal waters in central and east central Pacific. It is accountable for reversal of fortunes for the aforementioned regions.
El Nino coerced storms are propelling huge waves into Californian shores that are attracting surfers to these coasts. The storms are fuelling giant waves in range of 50 feet, challenging the mettle of most avid of the surfers. More El Nino steered storms in the coming weeks are expected to lire more surfers from all over.
The flaring El Nino powered storms has also dumped inches of fresh snow over ski resorts throughout US West. Ski resorts in Colorado, California, New Mexico, Washington and Utah are gleaming with snow with promise of the best early season conditions for skiing.
As per recent reports, the current El Nino is now ebbing and La Nina conditions are likely to emerge by second half of the year.
Columnist
Indranil is a weather industry expert with a decade long experience in the domain. He has been instrumental in setting up novel weather services across landscapes for both agriculture and industry, raising capital and crafting a growth story for weather forecasting in India. Currently he is Senior Vice President of Express Weather.
