Suggest why many countries find El Niño weather anomalies very challenging.(10)
7 Study Figure 7.
(a) Suggest why many countries find El Niño weather anomalies very challenging.(10)
El Nino is referring to the dramatic change that occurs in the walker circulation cell and in other areas but I am going to focus on this specific area, where the usually south-easterly trade winds going from west of South America to Australia and Indonesia across the Pacific Ocean reverse or severely weaken. This occurs usually every 3-7 years and can last between 12-18 months. During an El Nino the warm sea in the western pacific migrate towards the South American coast because they are being dragged across by the winds. This stops the upwelling near South America and means that there are little nutrients in the sea. This lack of nutrients ruins the South American fishing industry and courses them to loose lots of income and money, for example in 1982/83 El Nino the South American fishing industry lost $290 million. Also as you can sea from figure 7 there is lots of rain fall on the west coast of South America due to the low pressure, this heavy rain fall cause severe flooding and mudslides that result in loss of life, an example of this was in central Ecuador and Peru in 1997 when it suffered rainfall 10 times the average rainfall, this caused extensive flooding and erosion as well as mudslides, there was loss of life and destruction of property as the country wasn’t able to cope with the severe weather. On the other side of the pacific in Australia and Indonesia the cold weather reduces evaporation, which causes very little rain and therefore drought, for example in the 1982/83 El Nino eastern Australia suffered one of it’s worst drought ever, resulting in a $2000 million loss in agriculture production. It causes crop failure and famine and many people died as a result. The dry spell also causes bush fires and dust storms, and in very severe cases can induce desertification. Other areas of the world that were affected from El Nino are East Asia (china),
(a) Suggest why many countries find El Niño weather anomalies very challenging.(10)
El Nino is referring to the dramatic change that occurs in the walker circulation cell and in other areas but I am going to focus on this specific area, where the usually south-easterly trade winds going from west of South America to Australia and Indonesia across the Pacific Ocean reverse or severely weaken. This occurs usually every 3-7 years and can last between 12-18 months. During an El Nino the warm sea in the western pacific migrate towards the South American coast because they are being dragged across by the winds. This stops the upwelling near South America and means that there are little nutrients in the sea. This lack of nutrients ruins the South American fishing industry and courses them to loose lots of income and money, for example in 1982/83 El Nino the South American fishing industry lost $290 million. Also as you can sea from figure 7 there is lots of rain fall on the west coast of South America due to the low pressure, this heavy rain fall cause severe flooding and mudslides that result in loss of life, an example of this was in central Ecuador and Peru in 1997 when it suffered rainfall 10 times the average rainfall, this caused extensive flooding and erosion as well as mudslides, there was loss of life and destruction of property as the country wasn’t able to cope with the severe weather. On the other side of the pacific in Australia and Indonesia the cold weather reduces evaporation, which causes very little rain and therefore drought, for example in the 1982/83 El Nino eastern Australia suffered one of it’s worst drought ever, resulting in a $2000 million loss in agriculture production. It causes crop failure and famine and many people died as a result. The dry spell also causes bush fires and dust storms, and in very severe cases can induce desertification. Other areas of the world that were affected from El Nino are East Asia (china),