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BBC Inside Science

El Nino Special

Jan 7, 2016
El Niño expert Roland Pease discusses the impacts of El Niño on global weather patterns, including floods, droughts, fires, and altered weather patterns. Experts explain the science behind how El Niño affects different regions, such as causing rains in drought-ridden California and exacerbating fires in Indonesia. The podcast sheds light on the cyclical nature and challenges of predicting El Niño events, emphasizing the environmental and human impacts of these natural phenomena.
27:45

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • El Nino disrupts global weather systems periodically by altering air and oceanic circulation patterns.
  • El Nino exacerbates droughts in California and fires in Indonesia, highlighting the intersection of climate change and human impact.

Deep dives

Understanding El Nino: The Climate Anomaly's Impact on Weather Systems

El Nino, a periodic climate anomaly in the Pacific Ocean, disrupts local weather systems globally. Scientists predict its occurrence every two to seven years, but its intensity remains challenging to forecast accurately. The phenomenon alters normal air and oceanic circulation patterns, leading to warm waters in the central and eastern Pacific, thereby affecting weather systems far beyond the Pacific region.

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