Global warming is intensifying El Niño weather | John Abraham

A new study finds that weather associated with El Nino events is becoming more severe

As humans put more and more heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, the Earth warms. And the warming is causing changes that might surprise us. Not only is the warming causing long-term trends in heat, sea level rise, ice loss, etc.; it's also making our weather more variable. It's making otherwise natural cycles of weather more powerful.

Perhaps the most important natural fluctuation in the Earth's climate is the El Nino process. El Nino refers to a short-term period of warm ocean surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific, basically stretching from South America towards Australia. When an El Nino happens, that region is warmer than usual. If the counterpart La Nina occurs, the region is colder than usual. Often times, neither an El Nino or La Nina is present and the waters are a normal temperature. This would be called a "neutral" state.