Mondo Knows Facts
El Nino shifts weather across the Pacific
Weakened trade winds leave warm water spread east and disrupt rainfall In a normal year trade winds pile warm surface water in the western Pacific. During El Nino those winds slacken, warm water spreads eastward and rainfall follows it. The pattern repeats every two to seven years and can bring drought to Australia and floods to Peru. It sits in Mondo's science collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: climate, ocean, weather
El Nino shifts weather across the Pacific: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Weakened trade winds leave warm water spread east and disrupt rainfall. The figure is taken from NOAA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a science fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.