El Nino forms in Pacific Ocean, probably why Hurricane season is slow

[LynneSin]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/09/13/weather.nino.reut/index.html

El Nino forms in Pacific Ocean
POSTED: 1:54 p.m. EDT, September 13, 2006


NEW YORK (Reuters) -- El Nino, an extreme warming of equatorial waters in the Pacific Ocean that wreaks havoc with world weather conditions, has formed and will last into 2007, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday.

El Nino has already helped make the Atlantic hurricane season milder than expected, said a NOAA forecaster.

"The weak El Nino is helping to explain why the hurricane season is less than we expected. El Ninos tend to suppress hurricane activity in the Atlantic," said Gerry Bell, a hurricane forecaster for NOAA.

The NOAA's Climate Prediction Center said the El Nino probably will spur warmer-than-average temperatures this winter over western and central Canada and the western and northern United States.

It said El Nino also will cause wetter-than-average conditions in the U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida, and spark dry conditions in the Ohio valley, the Pacific Northwest and most U.S. islands in the tropical Pacific.


<<<<snip>>>>

Last year's howlers included monsters like Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. But this El Nino apparently has helped hinder storm formation in 2006. So far, there has only been seven tropical storms and two hurricanes halfway through the hurricane season, which begins June 1 and ends November 30.

Scientists said El Ninos disrupt storm formation because it allows wind shear to rip apart thunderstorms in the center of the hurricanes, reducing power and intensity as a result.

[ananda]

1. Thank you god!

I'd been wondering why this season was so mild,
after last year, when I spent 17 fuckin hours driving
to a town just north of Austin to flee a Rita that never
really hit Houston!