The El Nio Southern Oscillation phenomenon affects the global climate; it is important that scientists, economists and medical personnel understand El Nio implications on the climate. The El Nio phenomenon is part of the larger climatic phenomenon known as the Southern Oscillation. The joint actions of these two weather phenomenon are known as ENSO (El Nio-Southern Oscillation) events. The extreme weather patterns which can be produced by an ENSO event can cause devastation around the world. El Nio is associated with ecological, economic, and medical disasters that coincide with torrential floods in the eastern Pacific, devastating droughts over the western tropical Pacific, and unusual weather throughout the rest of the world (6, 4). Teleconnection to most of the world's climate mean that changes in the El Nio-Southern Oscillation are felt globally.
ENSO events cause drought in India and Africa. At the same time they can cause flooding or extra rainfall in the South, Central and North Americas. The ENSO of 1982-83 was responsible for severe flooding in Peru; catastrophic fires occurred in Australia and Indonesia (7, 260). Mass migration to the coast, famine and epidemics, in which one-third of the population died, in Ethiopia were the result of activity of the ENSO in 1888-89 (5, 1284). The same year, 1888-89, India also experienced drought induced famine; Australia experienced drought followed by flooding. In 1988, North America suffered through an exceptionally hot and dry summer as the result of a ENSO event that year.
The water level of the Nile River is affected by the ENSO phenomenon as is the amount of rainfall in the Amazon region of Brazil. During ENSO events, the Amazon rain forest of Brazil northward to the Caribbean dry weather conditions exist for the second half of the year. South of the rain forest, from Central Chili east to Argentina and Uruguay a more active storm tract leads to higher ...