{"id":44421,"date":"2016-04-21T13:34:05","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T20:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?p=44421"},"modified":"2016-08-19T16:43:37","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T23:43:37","slug":"journal-james-el-nino-el-nino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/","title":{"rendered":"Journal from the James: El Ni\u00f1o, El Ni\u00f1o \u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Shaman
Shaman in Peru celebrating an El Ni\u00f1o ritual in which they ask for protection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By James Reserve Assistant Director John Laundr\u00e9<\/p>\n

We have heard a lot this past several months about El Ni\u00f1o \u2014 about how it is or was supposed to deluge us with rain \u2014 and other dire predictions. And in some areas, especially further north, that seems to be the case.<\/p>\n

However, here, with every predicted rain or snowfall, we heard that the anticipated El Ni\u00f1o has arrived, only to be followed by even more of that sunshine we are famous for. Again, with this last series of rain, we wondered, has it finally come? Or is it just a typical April showers bring May flowers?<\/p>\n

With a prediction of more than a week of sunny days coming up, we are not sure and one begins to wonder \u2026where is El Ni\u00f1o?<\/p>\n

Although we and the weather people are all probably wondering the same, this article is actually not about whether they were right or wrong about El Ni\u00f1o but some background on why it is called El Ni\u00f1o. This in itself should not only prove<\/p>\n

\"El
El Ni\u00f1o flooding in Peru. Photos courtesy open source<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

interesting but demonstrates how important weather and its long-term sibling, climate, are to the livelihoods of humans all along the western coast of the Americas and even on the other side of the Pacific.<\/p>\n

Scientifically, El Ni\u00f1o is properly called the El Ni\u00f1o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO for short). Like most scientific names of things, except for the El Ni\u00f1o part, they can be kind of dry and boring. The Southern Oscillation part of the name indicates how ENSO would affect our weather. It refers to the winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean (yawn \u2026 straight out of Wikipedia.).<\/p>\n

Though this is actually the important part of why ENSO has effects on our weather, it still does not explain the El Ni\u00f1o part.<\/p>\n

To understand why we call it El Ni\u00f1o, we need to go back in time and south in distance, all the way to Peru and to colonial times. Back in colonial Peru, and likely for centuries before, people living along the coast of much of Peru depended on the ocean for food. This is because much of western Peru is dry and desert-like.<\/p>\n

This has to do with the wind patterns I wrote about earlier (Town Crier, Sept. 10, 2015) and the fact that most times the current along the coast brought cold water and air up from the Antarctic region. With little moisture in this cold air, little precipitation fell on the land.<\/p>\n

However, these cold waters were rich in nutrients and supported an abundant off-coast fishery. This is the \u201cnormal\u201d pattern and the inhabitants, precolonial and after, adjusted to it.<\/p>\n

However, periodically, at roughly five-year intervals, things changed. Instead of strong, cold water currents, warmer water moved toward shore. With warmer water came warmer air with more moisture and thus more precipitation on land.<\/p>\n

However beneficial the rain might have been, it often fell in such torrents that it caused local flooding and destruction. Coupled with this was the lack of nutrient-rich water offshore, which led to a collapse of the fishing industry and the death of sea birds and mammals. In general, El Ni\u00f1o years were looked upon with trepidation and fear by locals. But why call it El Ni\u00f1o?<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the conditions leading to this devastating weather pattern usually began around Christmas time. El Ni\u00f1o in Spanish refers to the Christ child and so, one legend has it that the phenomenon was named after the season.<\/p>\n

However, beyond that, even today many people hold rituals where they parade with a statue of the Christ child, pleading him to protect them from the destruction of the El Ni\u00f1o event. In fact, as many of these rituals are recorded in church history, some past El Ni\u00f1o events have been tracked by examining these records.<\/p>\n

So there you have it. With it occurring around Christmas and with rituals pleading the Christ child, El Ni\u00f1o, for protection from its devastation, the term came to be associated with a significant climatological event.<\/p>\n

This event was originally thought to only affect the people of Peru. However, we now know that El Ni\u00f1o effects are felt globally and can explain periods of drought\/deluge in places as far away as India and including right here in Idyllwild.<\/p>\n

The influence of these El Ni\u00f1o events on human history in terms of famines, flooding, and disease continue to demonstrate that, even in these modern times, we are still a part of nature and not apart from her.<\/p>\n

\"Above
Above represents an El Ni\u00f1o year. Below is a normal year. Photos courtesy open source<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"elnino2\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By James Reserve Assistant Director John Laundr\u00e9 We have heard a lot this past several months about El Ni\u00f1o \u2014 about how it is or was supposed to deluge us with rain \u2014 and other dire predictions. And in some areas, especially further north, that seems to be the case. However, here, with every predicted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39,859],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nJournal from the James: El Ni\u00f1o, El Ni\u00f1o \u2026 • Idyllwild Town Crier<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jennifer Gee and John Laundre\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/\",\"name\":\"Journal from the James: El Ni\u00f1o, El Ni\u00f1o \u2026 • Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/shaman-520x292.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-21T20:34:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-19T23:43:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bace027cfc0a1a1636f1242340bb9ae4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/shaman-520x292.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/shaman-520x292.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Journal from the James: El Ni\u00f1o, El Ni\u00f1o \u2026\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/\",\"name\":\"Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"description\":\"Almost All the News \u2014\u00a0Part of the Time\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bace027cfc0a1a1636f1242340bb9ae4\",\"name\":\"Jennifer Gee and John Laundre\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bce9664da65650111a9525cafa9aa81?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bce9664da65650111a9525cafa9aa81?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jennifer Gee and John Laundre\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/author\/jennifer-gee-and-john-laundre\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Journal from the James: El Ni\u00f1o, El Ni\u00f1o \u2026 • Idyllwild Town Crier","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jennifer Gee and John Laundre","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/","url":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/","name":"Journal from the James: El Ni\u00f1o, El Ni\u00f1o \u2026 • Idyllwild Town Crier","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/shaman-520x292.jpg","datePublished":"2016-04-21T20:34:05+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-19T23:43:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bace027cfc0a1a1636f1242340bb9ae4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/shaman-520x292.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/shaman-520x292.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/04\/21\/journal-james-el-nino-el-nino\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Journal from the James: El Ni\u00f1o, El Ni\u00f1o \u2026"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/","name":"Idyllwild Town Crier","description":"Almost All the News \u2014\u00a0Part of the Time","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bace027cfc0a1a1636f1242340bb9ae4","name":"Jennifer Gee and John Laundre","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bce9664da65650111a9525cafa9aa81?s=96&d=retro&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bce9664da65650111a9525cafa9aa81?s=96&d=retro&r=g","caption":"Jennifer Gee and John Laundre"},"url":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/author\/jennifer-gee-and-john-laundre\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44426,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44421\/revisions\/44426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}