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La Nina Persists
Pasadena CA (SPX) Nov 08, 2007 "After eight very dry years on the Colorado River watershed and a record-breaking dry winter in Southern California in 2006-2007, the situation in the American Southwest is dangerously dry," said oceanographer Bill Patzert of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This La Nina could deepen the drought in the already parched Southwest and Southeast United States." Patzert and other scientists say La Nina contributed to the conditions that fueled Southern California's recent deadly wildfires. A La Nina situation often follows an El Nino episode and is essentially the opposite of an El Nino condition. During a La Nina, trade winds are stronger than normal, and the cold water that normally exists along the coast of South America extends to the central equatorial Pacific. A La Nina changes global weather patterns and is associated with less moisture in the air, resulting in less rain along the coasts of North and South America, the equator and in the far Western Pacific. Jason will continue to track this change in Pacific climate. This image of the Pacific Ocean was produced using sea-surface height measurements taken by Jason. The image is based on the average of 10 days of data centered on October 16, 2007, compared to the long-term average of observations from 1993 through 2005. In the image, places where the Pacific sea surface height is higher (warmer) than normal are yellow and red, and places where the sea surface is lower (cooler) than normal are blue and purple. Green shows where conditions are near normal. Sea-surface height is an indicator of the heat content of the upper ocean. The comings and goings of El Nino and La Nina are part of a longer evolving state of global climate, of which sea-surface height is a useful indicator. The Jason follow-on mission, Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2, is scheduled for launch next June and will extend the data record to a span of two decades. Related Links NASA's ocean surface topography missions Water News - Science, Technology and Politics
Africa floods linked to 'La Nina' weather in Pacific: UN agency
Geneva (AFP) Sept 20, 2007Severe flooding caused by torrential rains stretching across Africa is probably linked to the "La Nina" weather pattern thousands of mile away in the Pacific, a senior UN weather agency scientist said Thursday. |
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