What is El Niño and why is this one so powerful?

Transcript

Just imagine if a giant natural fan that helps cool the eastern Pacific, suddenly stopped working. And that's exactly what's happening right now. It's called El Nino, and this one is already being called a super El Nino. You see, this giant fan is actually made up of steady winds known as the trade winds, which blow from east to west. For centuries, these winds help sailing ships cross the Pacific Ocean. They push warm surface water toward Indonesia and Northern Australia, where it fuels tropical rainfall, and off the coasts of Peru and southern Ecuador, the water stays cold, helping keep the coastal climate dry. But every two to seven years, these trade winds weaken, allowing warm water to spread back east and bringing water temperatures here one or two degrees above normal. And that's enough to make the weather go crazy around the world. It can bring warmer winters to Canada, heavier rain to the southern United States, and flooding to parts of South America, while Indonesia and Australia face drought. In the 1870s, a powerful El Nino was one of the factors behind a famine that took the lives of an estimated 3% of the world's population. And now, scientists think the current El Nino could be the strongest ever recorded, with water temperatures in the eastern Pacific expected to rise more than three degrees. As the ocean releases heat into the atmosphere and raises global temperatures, 2027 could become the hottest year ever recorded.

Transcribed automatically from the video, so small errors are possible.