Birds and seals that normally feed on these fish also starve. Inland, El Ni o causes torrential rains and devastating floods, from the moisture-laden air coming from the warm sea. In the North Pacific, the California Current tends to be strong because of a strong offshore high, which produces coastal northerly winds. During El Ni o the eastern Pacific Ocean warms, weakening the offshore high and the California Current. Winter storms now make landfall farther south.
Tropical storms become more powerful and more frequent.
The warmer water and the lack of upwelling off the California coast causes nutrient-starved kelp forests to suffer and has a devastating effect on the animals that live within the kelp. Climatologists attempt to forecast El Ni o conditions several months ahead using indicators such as cloud cover in the tropical Pacific, temperature of surface waters in the equatorial ocean, and air pressure in northern Australia, Tahiti, and the eastern tropical Pacific. Alternatively, the increased strength and frequency of El Ni o conditions observed is due to a peculiar unexplained natural fluctuation. In this case, the climate system would eventually return to normal, on the scale of decades.