Weather: El Niño: The Grown-Up Child

El Nio: The Grown-Up Child

I met Nick Muecci by accident when I got to JFK Airport on my way to California to cover the record El Nio of 1997 and 1998. He recognized me from television and couldn't wait to share how El Nio affected his life. His home was in Connecticut, but he was spending time in Marin County, just north of San Francisco, planning a permanent move. However, he felt so besieged by the unrelenting El Nio-related storms that he gave up and opted instead to return to the "tranquil" Northeast. It was a strange year.


New Kid on the Block?


El Nio was named after the Christ Child by local fishermen because it usually appeared during the Christmas season and departed before Easter. El Nio years are supposed to be minor hurricane years. As the El Nio diminishes, there should be an increase in storms that reach the East Coast of the United States.

My assignment to cover the 1998 El Nio came from my news director, who suggested the series be called Mel Nio. In the early part of the winter, people referred to it as "El No-Show," because its impact in November and December seemed so minor.

The term El Nio comes from Spanish, meaning "the boy child" or "the Christ child." The name was coined by fishermen in Ecuador and Peru. They noticed a warm ocean current periodically surfacing around Christmas and El Nio seemed an appropriate name for it. El Nio has been going on for centuries. During the past 40 years, there have been 10 El Nios—meaning that on 10 occasions the water temperature reached above normal in the eastern Pacific because of an eastward drifting current of warm surface water. El Nio is no youngster.

Weather Words


—Mark Twain

Typically, the warm surface water prevents nutrient-rich waters from rising upward. When El Nio arrives, fish are less abundant off the west coast of South America. It has always been a time for those who fish to take a break, repair equipment, and spend more time with their families. Normally El Nio will last for a few months, but sometimes the warm currents last longer, and economic ruin could come to the fishing industry. Weak events would have only a minor impact on fisheries, but major ones would be economically devastating.

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