Environmental Reflection #2

La Niña Most of us are curious what is La Niña and how does it occur. La Niña is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that is the counterpart of El Niño as part of the broader El Niño-Southern Oscillation climate pattern. As I search for different facts about La Niña, I learned that during the period of La Niña, the sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean will be lower than normal by 3–5 °C. In the United States, an episode of La Niña is defined as a period of at least 5 months of La Niña conditions. The name La Niña originates from Spanish, meaning "the girl," analogous to El Niño meaning "the boy." It is sometimes informally called "anti-El Niño", is the opposite of El Niño, where the latter corresponds instead to a higher sea surface temperature by a deviation of at least 0.5 °C, and its effects are often the reverse of those of El Niño. El Niño is famous due to its potentially catastrophic impact on the weather along both the Chilean, Peruvian, New Zealand, and Australian coasts, among others. It has extensive effects on the weather in North America, even affecting the Atlantic Hurricane Season. La Niña is often, though not always, preceded by an El Niño. I want to know more about the extensive effects of La Niña on our weather and does it affect our different pattern of seasons. I would like to research on how the results of La Niña are mostly the opposite of those of El Niño; for example, El Niño would cause a dry period in the Midwestern U.S., while La Niña would typically cause a wet period in that area. La Niña often causes drought conditions in the western Pacific; flooding in northern South America; mild wet summers in northern North America and drought in the south-eastern United States. I appreciate the fact that During La Niña years, the trade winds are unusually strong due to an enhanced pressure gradient between the eastern and western Pacific. As a result, upwelling is enhanced along the coast of South America, contributing to colder than normal surface waters over the eastern tropical Pacific and warmer than normal surface waters in the western tropical Pacific. I can apply my learnings and insights in understanding weather conditions specially this phenomenon called La Niña. I can know understand better why we are experiencing La Niña here in the Philippines. Furthermore, I can apply my learnings and insights in a way of sharing information about La Niña and its importance.