Problem
The El Nino and La Nina storms bring up very serious and harmful effects of the planet. What happens is that there are major temperature changes in the East Pacific Ocean. Once the temperature starts to change rapidly, there is more warm water than cold water increasing water levels in areas of the world. It causes an un-normal amount of water in certain places in the pacific. During El Nino a mass of water lands on western South America, Mexico, and Western United States. This extra amount of water kills animal’s habitats, loss of crops for local farmers, loss of fish, mud slides, and flooding. All these are dangerous to humans and animals alike.
Hypothesis
During El Nino, there is an un-normal amount of water pushing on to land. This also creates large amounts of rain. Using my data chart of info on precipitation levels in North-West California through 1969-1979 I will be guessing which years have had El Nino years. My guesses are; December 1969, Late January 1975, and December 1978. I took my three highest points of the graph and looked down to the month and year then guessed that time period.
Methods
During this project I was looking for either California or South American precipitation levels for about 10 or 20 years. I searched for some data in those areas and from 1970-1980. I found that data and graphed it using a computer program. I ran into some difficulties entering in the dates because it was not the right type of method. I had to redo it using their methods of charting Month and Year. After that I read searched info on wikipedia.com, an online encyclopedia; I found some great info about La Nina and El Nino.
The Term Paper on Equatorial Pacific Water Warm Years
El Ni o, it was learned, is as much an atmospheric event as an oceanic one. The winds and the waters communicate with each other halfway around the world. (Johnson) In a normal year, the trade winds blow from South America to Asia, pushing warm water to the far reaches of the western equatorial Pacific. During an El Ni o, this pool of warm water sloshes across the Pacific to Peru as the normal ...
Data
The info that I found in the raw data was very similar in most years but also rose dramatically in others. At first I was interested in yearly totals. Through those ten years I found that the most precipitation through 1969- 1979 in California was 78.55 inches in 1974. The average amount of rainfall from 1969-1979 was 55.24 inches. The most amount of rainfall in a month was in January 1978 with 20.83 inches of rain. So the 1976-1977 El Nino might have carried over into the New Year.
These are the years in which El Nino has occurred
1941-1942 1951-1952 1953-1954 1957-1958 1965-1966 1969-1970 1972-1973 1976-1977 1982-1983 1986-1987 1991-1992 1994-1995 1997-1998
Conclusion
My conclusion is that while I was finishing the project I noticed a pattern in the amount of rain goes up and down every year in a very similar pattern. I also saw that during an El Nino year the level of water spikes dramatically then goes to almost zero after that El Nino. I also saw that my guesses compared to the real El Nino years were give or take a year. I was pretty accurate with my hypothesis and learned much about El Nino. Coming into this project I didn’t even know what El Nino was and now I know mostly everything a student needs to know.
