“El Niño - Impacts on South America”

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a periodical phenomenon of abnormally warm sea surface temperatures (SST) occurring in the equatorial Pacific which can result in climate impacts extending globally. This study focused on the climate effects due to the ENSO in South America since it is located adjacent to the equatorial basin where this occurs, and climate fluctuations can be more dramatic due to the proximity. Previous research has determined that impacts on South America are dependent on which region of the equatorial Pacific has the warmest SST anomalies, and the consequences can be catastrophic for regions of Peru and Ecuador when these anomalies are right by the coast, leading to excessive rainfall in the otherwise arid region. Using SST and precipitation data from ships and satellite observations, respective conditions for the most recent flooding events in Peru were plotted to further prove the correlation between the excessive rainfall and the warm SST in the coastal regions of the equatorial Pacific, and to more effectively differentiate the type of impacts based on which type of ENSO event occurs. Most recent observations, indicative of a coastal El Niño, were also studied to gain a better understanding of the atmospheric response associated with the change in global circulation leading to the change in climate patterns.