Bloomberg:
The Pacific Ocean is likely in the early stages of a La Nina cycle that may mean more Atlantic hurricanes and drier, warmer winters across the southern U.S.
Some parts of the Pacific near the equator are now 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) below average, the Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said on its website today.
“As computer models predict the central Pacific will continue to cool over the coming months, it is now highly likely that the Pacific is in the early stages of a La Nina event, and that 2010 will be considered a La Nina year,” the bureau said.
La Nina is a cooling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean occurring on average every three to five years and lasting nine to 12 months, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some events have lasted as long as two years.
La Ninas enhance the conditions necessary for hurricanes to develop in the Atlantic by damping high-altitude winds that can tear the storms apart as they are forming, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
An increase in the number of hurricanes boosts the chances that a storm will enter the Gulf of Mexico, home to about 30 percent of U.S. oil and 12 percent of U.S. natural gas production, Energy Department data show.
The cooling replaces a warming event, or El Nino, that took place last year and is credited in part with making the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season one of the least-active since 1997.
Just something to remember when more hurricanes (way more than last year!) and a warmer winter is blamed on global warming.
