The tradewinds which usually blow in the Pacific push the warm equatorial water of the Pacific toward the west. When these tradewinds fail, warm water flows back to the east, pushing south along the coast of Ecuador and Peru. As the warm water flows to the east, it buries the cold, nutrient-rich water which normally upwells at the coast. The presence of the warm water causes torrential rains to develop along sections of coastline that are normally arid.
Droughts occur in other, normally moist areas.
For example, the southern Pacific hurricane area shifted, sending storms across French Polynesia. The areas affected most heavily were Louisiana, Florida and Cuba. Flooding also affected Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Floods and mudslides claimed 2,000 lives, and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in property and crop damage. Thousands of people perished from starvation and the heat, and crop losses amounted to several billion dollars.