[waves]

Thank you Steve!

Your post was very enlightening. Although I am generally aware of the El Niño phenomenon, i did not know we were in another bout of it, nor did it even occur to me!

Ok, here are some links.

Wikipedia has an extensive page on this, with references.
Wikipedia - El Niño-Southern Oscillation

Here are just a few tidbits:

Definition
El Niño is defined by sustained differences in Pacific-Ocean surface temperatures when compared with the average value.
...
Typically, this happens at irregular intervals of 2–7 years and lasts nine months to two years.[6]

Early stages and characteristics of El Niño
...
The Pacific Ocean is a heat reservoir that drives global wind patterns, and the resulting change in its temperature alters weather on a global scale.[8] Rainfall shifts from the western Pacific toward the Americas, while Indonesia and India become drier.[9]

Here's a page from The Franklin Institute Science Museum dating back to the 1997/8 episode of El Niño, that makes an interesting point:
El Niño: Hot Air over Hot Water

In the 1500s, fishermen who lived in South America began to wonder about a current of unusually warm water that came to their shore every few years near Christmastime. Since the fishermen believed in the birth of the Christ child at Christmas, and since they spoke Spanish, they named the hot water El Niño, which means "the infant" in Spanish.
[...]
The 1997-1998 El Niño may or may not be stronger than ever before. Scientists are still deciding. One thing that is definitely different about this El Niño is the technology that scientists are using to study it.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has two brief pages dedicated to El Niño and the complementary La Niña phenomena
NOAA El Niño Page
NOAA La Niña Page

well that's plenty for now i should think.

~ waves ~