Thousands of miles away, the massive shift in ocean temperatures was playing puppet master with the global atmosphere, altering the jet streams that circle the Earth.
The impacts of the 2015/2016 El Niño on California's sandy beaches El niГ±o (2016)
The ocean looked an eerie, beautiful shade of turquoise, but it was completely barren. The fish had fled south or dived into the depths to escape the stifling heat, leaving Mateo’s nets empty and his community on the brink of financial ruin. A Planet Out of Balance Thousands of miles away, the massive shift in
It had started late in 2015 when the easterly trade winds suddenly stalled and collapsed. Instead of the cool, nutrient-rich Humboldt Current rising from the deep ocean to feed massive schools of anchoveta, a massive, sluggish blanket of warm water pushed across the equator from the western Pacific. To Mateo’s ancestors, this seasonal warming near Christmas was known as El Niño —the Christ Child. But what was happening now was no gentle seasonal shift. This was a giant waking up. A Planet Out of Balance It had started
The massive , drastically altering global climates and affecting over 60 million people. Dubbed the "Godzilla El Niño" by scientists, its peak in 2016 unleashed severe droughts in Africa and Asia, record-breaking global temperatures, and chaotic storm systems across the Americas. The Breath of the Sleeping Giant