EL NI$Ntilde;O has taken more flak than it deserves, says a climate researcher in
the US.
The El Ni帽o of 1997-1998 was widely blamed for extreme weather. But a
statistical analysis by Ed Harrison of the Pacific Marine Environmental
Laboratory in Seattle shows much of the wild weather had other causes.
For instance, heavy winter rains in California were blamed on El Ni帽o,
but Harrison found that previous El Ni帽os often made California unusually
dry (Geophysical Research Letters, vol 25, p 3959). “There
seems to be more to the question of what gives us weather anomalies in the US
than just El Ni帽o,” says Harrison.
