The weather stands as one of the phenomena of the natural world that has a great effect on human activity but which human beings seem to be incapable of affecting, or even predicting with any accuracy. In this age of satellites, space travel, and computer simulations, though, we learn more and more about how the weather is formed and about different natural forces related to the weather either as cause or effect. Among the forces being studied today for the effect they have on weather conditions are the jet stream high above and the condition known as El Nino found in the Pacific ocean. The two in concert have a profound effect on the weather in California and throughout the Pacific region, with other effects extending far beyond that immediate area. El Nino has been blamed both for massive rains and drought conditions in California, and recent evidence suggests that the condition lasts much longer than was previously suspected and that this might provide a means for improved weather prediction in the Western United States in the future.
El Nino was named by the people of Peru, where every few years the people must endure changing weather conditions. Under normal circumstances, the trade winds blow west across the Pacific and push warm surface water toward the Philippines, which allows cool water to well up from the depths of the ocean off the coast of South America. This brings needed nutrients to the surface, supporting the Peruvian fishing industry. Every few years, however, the trade winds collapse, allowing the warm water to move back east in the form of a vast, slow wave that caps the supply of cold water and crushes fish populations. This disturbance often happens around Christmas, which is how it got the name El Nino, or the Little One, a reference to the infant Jesus (Zimmer, 1995, p. 68).
Researchers now know that El Ninos start in the tropical South Pacific. This occurs every few years as giant regions of h...