EL NINO AND LA NINA

• El nino Southern Oscillation

  is a natural climatic phenomenon characterized mainly by cyclic fluctuation of warm and cold sea surface temperatures and atmospheric pressure in the central and eastern equatorial pacific
• El nino

  causes extreme regional scale weather and climate pattern changes which can result either droughts or flood in different regions of the earth
• El nino is a prolonged unusual warming of sea surface temperature in the central pacific
• El nino

  entails 3 months, greater than usual warming in specific portion of east central tropical pacific ocean
• wind usually blown to the west along the equator in the Pacific region which causes the piling of water that can reach up to half a meter in the western Pacific
• in eastern portion of the Pacific, upwelled, deeper, and colder water replaces the isolated surface water that has been pushed west
• 1Domestic water supply 2. Irrigation 3. Electric generation 4. Agriculture 5. Marine ecosystem 6. Capture fishery 7. aquaculture
• effects of El nino

  1. Domestic water supply
  2. Irrigation
  3. Electric generation
  4. Agriculture
  5. Marine ecosystem
  6. Capture fishery
  7. aquaculture
  8. Land degradation
  9. Water quality deterioration
  10. Forest wildfires
  11. Land subsidence
  12. Direct economic and social effects
• The occurrence of El Nino has been cause of severe dry spells or drought
• 1982-1983 drought


  approximately 450,000 hectares

  of land and resulted in damage to

  approximately 640,000 metric

  tons rice and corn crops
• 1992-1993 drought


  incurred damage to agriculture for

  about 4.1 billion and approximately

  478, 000 metric tones of destroyed

  corn crops
• 1997-1998 dry spell


  agricultural damage approximately 8.4 billion and 622,000 metric tones of rice 565, 000 metric tones of corn amounting to almost 3 billion pesos
• La Nina


  • exact opposite to El Nino
  • it involves prolonged unusual cooling of sea surface temperatures in central and eastern equatorial Pacific that may last for 3 years
  • can follow El Nino but records shows that El Nino occur twice as frequent as La Ninas
• Causes of La nina

  • near normal to above normal

  rainfall conditions, particularly

  over the eastern sector of the

  country

  • observe the increase of tropical

  cyclones that enter Philippines
• Health Problems


  1. Acute gastroenteritis
  2. cholera
  3. Hepatitis
  4. Typhoid fever
  5. Leptospirosis
  6. Dengue and malaria