El Nino what?
The Bureau of Meteorology has officially declared an El Nino year yesterday, but what the heck is an El Nino and what does it mean for us Aussies? "Official" definition: El Nino is part of a natural cycle termed ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation), along w El Nina and "neutral". It is one of the most influential natural phenomena that affects yearly climate variability in Australia. Dummy 101 definition: El Nino = warm spells i.e. we gonn melt more than usual this summer Significance: El Nino years typically mean ↑ fire risk in SE Aus Reduced rainfall Warmer temp Shift in temp extremes (n.b. some places will have both higher one-day avg temp and longer warm spells, whilst elsewhere e.g. Melb more likely to have higher one-day avg temp but shorter overall warm spells) Increased frost risk (due to reduced cloud coverage, can get colder-than-avg night-time temps) Reduced tropical cyclone numbers Later monsoon onset Decreased alpine snow depths Time to stock up on ...