Series: El Niño In Wisconsin
The climatic cycle known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, exerts a powerful but irregular influence on weather around the world. Climatologists predicted that 2015 could be a record year for El Niño, given surface water temperature warming in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean — one of the key indicators of the cycle. Its impact in Wisconsin is indirect but causes general warmer conditions in winter — while other parts of the world can see droughts, floods, and massive food insecurity. But El Niño can still cause challenges for Wisconsin farmers, tourism, logging, and wildlife. The cycle is highly unpredictable, and scientists are still trying to understand how it interacts with global climate change.