mate records to determine the effect of El'NiZo on Maine winters.  In general,  Mainers can expect a warmer and snowier (wetter) than normal winter season when El'NiZo is around. As well, the snow has a slight tendency to fall from several large storms, greater than 8 inches, rather than many small storms, 4 inches or less.  Unfortunately, there is little relationship between El'NiZo and any particular summer weather regime, except notably less hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean. 

So hopefully, you are feeling E

l'NiZo aware and are now empowered to face the wrath of next winter's weather and weather-hype.  However, one question remains, why does El'NiZo exist at all and what can I do about it?  This question is actually where the detective work is going on right now.  The father of modern meteorology, Carl Gustav Rosby, in the 1950s inferred that we should pay close attention to such weather patterns as El'NiZo as they may give us insight into the direction of climate change. 

The planet has been very slowly warming since the last ice age, but in the last 100 years the pace has quickened, especially since the late 1970s.  It is the recent warming which man may be causing.  A comparison also shows that the strength and frequency of El'NiZo episodes has been slowly increasing closely in step with the observed global warming rates.  Two of the strongest episodes, 1982 and 1997

have occurred during a period of relatively fast global warming.  Cutting edge theory suggests  that El'NiZo is analogous to a person perspiring in order to cool down. The more overheated one gets, the more they perspire.

"Wow! So El'NiZo is not the culprit, it's much worse! It's global warming?"  Maybe,  maybe not. The relationship of El'NiZo to global warming is a theory. That is, it has not yet reasonably proven. For example, we do not have enough hard data to show that fluctuations in El'NiZo are not coincidentally related to climate change. Meaning that they may not be related at all.

Climate is a tough nut to crack.  We now know about El'NiZo and can now reasonably predict an El'NiZo about 6 months ahead of its occurrence, as well as  the influence it might have on any particular region of the world.  That gives us time to prepare and hopefully mitigate such traumas as a fishery collapses, crop failures, etc.  Take note that some as yet unnamed climate pattern may be responsible for our recent drought and mild winter. So we have a ways to go in our understanding of climate.  One thing is for sure, El'NiZo was definitely not

lar air currents meet. Important to the idea of everyday weather is the fact that the formation of storms, especially their strength and movement, is related to the position and intensity of the jet stream.  So, if the jet stream moves from its normal winter position, then all of the storms of that winter will form and move in unusual ways. The whole season's weather is then observed as abnormal.

To shorten a long story, scientists now recognize that  El'NiZo, and its opposite La'NiZa, have been occurring on a 2 to 6 year cycle since the last ice-age!  So  El'NiZo's unusual weather is, well, sort of normal. El'NiZo is just one of many climate fluctuations which result in the variety of  winter seasons we have all experienced over the years.  The 1982 and 1997 events are notable exceptions. Both events were associated with extreme climate shifts and accompanied by two of the largest ocean temperature shifts of roughly the last 50,000 years.

Several studies have used your cli