Introduction | El Niño and La Niña (ENSO) | NAO and Artic Oscillation

El Niño and Other Wild Climate Events

Global climate change is affecting our planet but it is difficult for people to see the effects over just a few years because the process takes a long time. But climate also varies over smaller timescales of just a few years in different regions of the globe. People can easily see the effects of these wild climate events disrupting weather patterns in large regions of the world.

The wild climate events described in this section like El Niño (ENSO), the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation are all at least partially controlled by changes in pressure and winds in our atmosphere. They are natural. However, there is evidence that many of them are changing because of global warming. Scientists are studying their patterns to see how Earth’s rising temperatures might affect these wild events.