El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

Today you will create a trifold brochure about ENSO.


Left: El Niño events are associated with a warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific. 

Right: La Niña events are the reverse, with a sustained cooling of these same areas. 

Center:  Under Normal conditions, trade winds on the equatorial Pacific normally blow from east to west (Peru towards Asia). This causes the warm waters of the equatorial Pacific (US and South America) to migrate toward Asia, and cool water to upwell off Peru. Generally, high pressure builds over the cool Pacific waters off Peru producing stable atmospheric conditions while low pressure and tropical precipitation develops off Asia.

These changes in the Pacific Ocean and its overlying atmosphere occur in a cycle known as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

Click here and use the tutorial to draw El Niño, La Niña, and Normal years.

In your brochure, include a written description of these three weather events. 

On the back: 
Farthest Left: make a title page

Center: Click here and listen to the Weather Channel broadcasts about El Niño, and make a prediction for the winter. Use the sea surface temperatures for the equatorial pacific to justify your answer.


Farthest Right: DOL

DOL: click here to complete Investigating El Niño Using Real Data.

Complete all questions for Levels 1-5. Number the questions, and identify answer choices as A, B, C, D