I ran across something about El Niño a few months ago, and figured I should post something about it eventually. Perhaps you've heard some of the teachers complaining about how weirdly warm it's been so far this "winter". Even last year was a bit warm, too. There's a good reason for that… El Niño.
Those who come from outside of North America probably either don't know what this is, or have a different name for it. I never really knew what it was growing up in the US either. I just knew about it from that Chris Farley sketch on SNL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvmeUStFvz8
El Niño is a warm weather pattern that surges in the Pacific Ocean. It typically means that the west coasts of the Americas get a lot of warm and wet weather throughout it's insurgence. On this side of the globe, it makes the Philippines quite dry, and Japan and China quite warm. This is why it's not 10 degrees colder right now.
Thank you Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ni%C3%B1o
So yeah, that's interesting or whatever. The real warming is the effect a warm winter has on the trailing summer. It was decently warm last year, too, and we ended up with a hotter than average summer because of it. With an even warmer winter expected this year, it should follow that next year's summer will be even worse than this year. :/
El Niño might prematurely die off, though, leading to a more normal year. But it seems like "top men" don't think that'll happen. Some even say that this year's El Niño will be the strongest ever recorded.
http://www.latimes.com/local/weather/la-me-ln-el-nino-q-a-20151120-story.html
Enjoy the mild winter y'all, and pay the price next year.