More on ENSO

After discussing ENSO as the primary cause for the Aboriginal decline in Kimberly in an earlier blogpost I kept seeing new articles popping up about the devastating impacts this 2015 ENSO was having across the world.

What I did not realise however was that the ENSO was having such a massive affect on so many countries including the UK! I came upon this Buzzfeed article describing how El Nino is the cause of some of this horrid weather we've been having. Okay so I know it's hard to distinguish between the different rubbish weather we've been getting but this winter has been one of the wettest and this year has also been one of the warmest. This is the result of both ENSO and climate change. An El Nino event causing warming of the equatorial waters of the Pacific which in turn warms the atmosphere driving global weather. The El Nino has led to warm and wet conditions in the North which has resulted in the severe floods we've seen in Britain this winter, and its predicted to do the in 2016. 

The floods in Leeds (Source:The Guardian)

Moreover with rising temperatures due to climate change and future ENSO events the frequency and intensity of storms are expected to increase with unprecedented impacts on societies. This will not only affect the UK but nations around the globe too and whilst there are already worries on the UK's flood defences just imagine the impacts in densely populated developing countries!

ENSO is also predicted to cause environmental damage as this articles suggest record temperatures will cause serious fires in the Amazon which may devastate the local ecology and lead to more carbon being released into the atmosphere. 

Thus like the the situation in Kimberley, climate change coupled with a strong and slightly unpredictable ENSO may have serious consequences on societies across the globe if preventative methods are not taken. Nevertheless, continual monitoring and possible warning systems may help nations be better prepared to deal with future climatic stress.