El Niño is on its way

Meteorologists predict that we may see an El Niño in 2014, which means that it might be a good time to brush up on what the heck this supposedly terrifying weather phenomenon actually is. Here's what you need to know.

According to NOAA,El Niño "refers to the large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to a periodic warming in sea surface temperatures across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific." In other words, warmer water in the Pacific that messes up normal weather patterns across our continent.

An El Niño event typically occurs once every several years. The last El Niño we saw was in 2004, but the one before that, in 1997, is considered a textbook example of a strong El Nino. According to NASA climatologist Bill Patzert, "a pattern of sea surface heights and temperatures has formed that reminds me of the way the Pacific looked in the spring of 1997." Data collected by a NASA satellite shows a series of "Kelvin waves," or massive oceanic ripples that could suggest an upcoming El Niño. It will take a few months before we know whether or not we'll seen a El Niño this year.

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