Regional close-ups highlight areas devastated by floods or droughts, and illustrate the effects the early February storms that repeatedly slammed into the California Coast. The animation highlights global rainfall anomalies associated with the 1997-98 El Nino. Green regions are wetter than normal and red regions are drier than normal. The animation highlights regional rainfall anomalies associated with the 1997-98 El Nino.
Green regions are wetter than normal and red regions are drier than normal.
Close-ups of North America, South America, Pacific Basin, Indonesia and Australia regions. The next segment presents the cumulative distribution of these rainfall anomalies added together beginning in January 1997 to the present. The visualizations show the correlation between sea surface temperature, wind patterns and sea surface height. The animations show an eastward moving wave which raises the sea level in response to wind changes a third of the way around the globe in the far western Pacific. The images show that this year s El Nino developed much earlier and than the 82-83 event.