LA NINA CAUSING GLOBAL MAYHEM.Byline: Steve Carney and Harrison Sheppard Staff Writers Deadly heat bakes the Midwest and East Coast, floods leave millions homeless in Asia, and a tinder-dry Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. waits for wildfires. All of this global weather mayhem and more comes courtesy of La Nina La Niña n. A cooling of the ocean surface off the western coast of South America, occurring periodically every 4 to 12 years and affecting Pacific and other weather patterns. , which forecasters said Thursday is certain to rebound this winter after showing hopeful signs of weakening during the spring. For Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, and the world, that means another year of climate chaos, including a second dry and dangerous fire season for Los Angeles and a host of hurricanes to batter the Atlantic coast. ``La Nina may be temporarily down, but she's definitely not out,'' said Bill Patzert, a research oceanographer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. . The weather phenomenon, marked by cooler-than-normal temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean, appeared to be ebbing in the spring. But new satellite photographs show it regaining strength that should carry it until the end of the year, if not beyond. La Nina's return to Southern California has good and bad repercussions repercussions npl → répercussions fpl repercussions npl → Auswirkungen pl . ``The good news is it's milder and cooler,'' a local summer effect of La Nina, Patzert said. ``The bad news is we could always use the rainfall. When we go into our second year of below-normal rainfall it's not good news for the people who have to fight the brush fires.'' La Nina brought heavy snow to Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern , bolstering reservoirs left brimming from the wet El Nino of 1997-1998, noted for its warmer-than-normal Pacific temperatures and increased rainfall. Despite the droughts, floods, hurricanes and other weather-related mayhem, the world's climate isn't out of whack, any more than the doomsayers predicting another ice age in the 1970s were correct. ``We go through cycles where it's more one way or another,'' said Joseph D'Aleo, chief meteorologist with the Maryland-based Weather Services International. ``As you look back in history you see periods of extreme conditions. But long term, there's not a lot of evidence we're much more extreme.'' For example, 1954, 1955, 1964, 1975 and 1988 were all La Nina drought years, he said. La Nina and EL Nino do their work by pushing around the jet stream, the high-level, high-speed current of air that flows across the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . It starts in the Northwest, dips south in the Midwest and rises again to the Northeast. Normally it carries cold air from Canada through the Midwest, where it zooms far enough south to gather some warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico Noun 1. Gulf of Mexico - an arm of the Atlantic to the south of the United States and to the east of Mexico Golfo de Mexico Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean - the 2nd largest ocean; separates North and South America on the west from Europe and Africa on the east - the collision of warm and cold air creating summer rainstorms over the Great Plains. But La Nina has pushed the jet stream north, so it can't reach the rain-making warm air from the Gulf. The result - a choking drought that has scorched scorch v. scorched, scorch·ing, scorch·es v.tr. 1. To burn superficially so as to discolor or damage the texture of. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. the Midwest and Northeast. In Delaware, Gov. Thomas Carper on Thursday declared a drought emergency and mandatory water restrictions for two-thirds of the state's estimated 724,000 residents. Maryland announced statewide emergency restrictions Wednesday. And other states have enacted similar rules, following drought conditions "Drought Conditions" is episode 126 of The West Wing. Plot Senator Rafferty, a new presidential candidate garnered much media attention with a ground-breaking speech about health care. . Other parts of the United States and world get a soaking under La Nina's watch. Forecasters predict it will create a busier-than-normal hurricane season this year for the Atlantic seaboard. When the jet stream is flowing farther south, like during an El Nino year, it stirs up the air over the Atlantic and knocks the tops off forming hurricanes, Patzert said. But in a La Nina year, like this, the jet stream is out of the area and the hurricanes have relatively calm air in which to form and strengthen, he said. La Nina has already been battering Asia with fearsome storms, which it has spawned by other means, said Klaus Weickmann, meteorologist with the Climate Diagnostic Center, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Noun 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; provides weather reports and forecasts floods and hurricanes and lab in Boulder, Colo. Weather systems that generate monsoon rains and cyclones in Asia shy away from Verb 1. shy away from - avoid having to deal with some unpleasant task; "I shy away from this task" avoid - stay clear from; keep away from; keep out of the way of someone or something; "Her former friends now avoid her" La Nina's cool water, he said. They remain in the warmer waters of the western Pacific, cozying up against the land in Asia. Then they batter it with more rain than during a normal year, when some of the storms can dissipate offshore. This week a monsoon in North Korea killed 42 people, while at least 71 died in the Philippines after landslides, flooding and four days of rain. In South Korea, 29 inches of rain fell from Saturday to Tuesday, submerging entire villages and leaving 3,000 homeless. Scores more were killed in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. And in China, flooding from storms throughout the summer has killed 725 people. The bountiful rain from El Nino sprouted more vegetation on area hillsides. But all that greenery dried out in the arid La Nina winter last year, leaving hillsides covered with kindling kindling (kinˑ·dling), n change in brain function wherein repeated chemical or electrical stimuli induce seizures. kindling 1. parturition in the doe rabbit. . Another dry La Nina winter, which forecasters expect this year, would increase the wildfire danger even more throughout Southern California. ``That's the way Mother Nature works,'' Patzert said. ``She spanks you, and then she rewards you.'' CAPTION(S): Map Map: LA NINA'S TRAIL While La Nina has made for dry and dangerous wildfire seasons in Southern California, it's also wreaking havoc elsewhere around the globe. SOURCE: Daily News research Daily News |
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