Name El Nino by Cindy Grigg
Answer the following questions BEFORE you read this book. It is okay if you do not know as much as you thought. Do the best you can! 1. What do you already know about El Nino? 2. Can changes in ocean currents affect weather thousands of miles away? 3. Is there a cycle that is the opposite of El Nino? If so, what might it be called? Fishermen, like farmers, depend upon nature. When conditions are right, fishing is good. When conditions are bad, there will be few or no fish to catch. Fishermen in Peru noticed that each year at a certain time, the ocean current that normally flowed from south to north would flow in the other direction. This change brought warmer waters along the coast of Peru. Sometimes the change was brief. Other times, the change lasted for many months. Sometimes the water grew only a little warmer. Other times, the water became so warm that fish migrated far away. 1 2 El Nino
Most of the time, the waters off the coast of Peru were full of fish. There was plenty of food there for the fish to eat. During the years the ocean waters got a lot warmer, many of the tiny algae and sea creatures the fish liked to eat died. Then the fish had to move to cooler waters to look for food. The fishermen could do nothing but wait for the waters to cool and the fish to return. There were other "fishermen" who suffered, too. Many birds depended on fish for their food. When the fish left the coast, many of them died. When birds died, the people who collected their droppings and sold them for fertilizer were left without income, like the fishermen. 3 4 El Nino
The people of Peru wrote about these changes that came about when the ocean water turned warmer. For fishermen, they often meant disaster. Some ships' logs from 500 years ago tell about these changes. People noticed these changes often came around the time of the Christmas holiday. They called them "El Nino." In Spanish, El Nino (el NEE-nyo) means "the little boy." It refers to the baby Jesus, whose birth is celebrated at Christmas. In the late 1800s, a scientist in Peru wrote about these changes. He named the warmer water current "El Nino." The scientist also wrote that, at the same time, places that were usually quite dry got a great deal of rainfall. For farmers in parts of Peru and Ecuador, El Nino was good. It gave them bumper crops of fruits and vegetables. The farmers called these seasons of unusually wet weather "years of abundance." 5 6 El Nino
The changes brought by El Nino have been known for hundreds of years. But only since the 1960s have scientists become aware that these changes cause extreme weather in many parts of the world. In most years, the warming of the Pacific water is slight. It lasts for only a month or two. It is limited to a narrow stretch of water along the coasts of Peru and Ecuador. But every few years, the increase in water temperature is large (as much as 9 degrees F, 5 degrees C). It may affect much of the eastern Pacific Ocean, and it may last for six months to a year, or even more. Warmer ocean waters cause bigger thunderstorms to develop. The storms have an impact on the strength and direction of winds. Winds carry warm, moist air to different parts of the world. This impacts world weather patterns. Scientists are just now learning how these changes develop and spread. 7 8 El Nino
El Nino seems to come in cycles from 3-7 years apart. Knowing how El Nino changed weather in the past, we can make predictions about what might happen in the future. Then people can make plans to deal with whatever might come their way. And we can thank the fishermen and people of Peru for writing about them. In 1997, El Nino was the strongest in more than 100 years. It brought fishing in Peru to a halt. This, in turn, disrupted the world's food supplies. It caused brutal storms in South America. There was heavy rainfall there, as well as in Kenya (Africa), and in central Europe. Heavy rains also hit California. These caused mudslides that demolished people's homes. Strong storms battered the Gulf Coast of the U.S. It caused drought in Southeast Asia and Australia. It was blamed for wildfires in Australia and Malaysia. But the northern United States enjoyed a very mild winter. 9 10 El Nino
Sometimes the opposite of El Nino happens. The ocean waters around Peru are cooler than normal. We call these changes "La Nina" - the little girl. They seem to happen about half as often as El Nino. La Nina also changes world weather. For example, to regions that are usually very dry during El Nino, La Nina brings wetter than normal weather. For centuries, El Nino was known for its effects along the coasts of Peru and Ecuador. Now scientists realize that "the little boy" is a powerful force that impacts life around the world. It damages coral reefs and other delicate ecosystems. It causes droughts, wildfires, flooding, hurricanes, tropical storms, crop failure, and starvation of people and animals. 11 12 El Nino
Scientists use many tools to help them record and understand the patterns and predict the effects of El Nino. Satellites, ocean buoys, weather instruments, and computer modeling programs are just a few. El Nino and La Nina cycles have been known for centuries. They will most likely continue disrupting normal weather patterns. Scientists will keep studying changes in weather and temperature patterns. They hope predicting these cycles can help prevent future disasters brought on by "the little boy and the little girl." 13 14 El Nino
Answer the following questions AFTER you have completed this book. 5. How often does El Nino happen? 1. What is El Nino? 6. Write a story that might appear in a newspaper about El Nino. Use facts from this book in your story. 2. Where does El Nino occur? Circle all that are correct: Spain Brazil France The U.S. Peru Ecuador 3. Circle the effects of El Nino: drought damage to coral reefs tsunamis hurricanes tropical storms large crops starvation mudslides wildfires flooding earthquakes crop failure large fishing catches more birds 4. What is the opposite of El Nino called? What does it mean? 15 16 El Nino