El Niño of 2015

The 2015-2016 El Nino Event

My presentation was based of off the El Niño event between 2015-2016. El Niño refers to a periodic shift in the ocean and atmosphere that pushes west winds and warm water across the tropical Pacific, toward South America. El Niño develops about every 2 to 6 years. A classic El Niño event will intensify during the northern fall, peak in the winter and decrease in the spring. The most recent El Niño is considered to be in the top 3 El Niño events in the past few decades.The  El Niño of 2015 formed during February- April 2015 period and finished on May 24, 2016. The winter of 2015-2016 was sold as the Godzilla of all El Nino's. El Nino's affected vulnerable people in parts of Eastern and Southern Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Dry Corridor in Central America, and Haiti in the Caribbean. This event cause long term consequences for public health, nutrition, livelihoods, water and sanitation.The weather phenomenon has resulted in poor or failed harvests in Africa, the Pacific and Central America in mid-2016, and has forced millions of poor households to resort to negative coping mechanisms, such as reducing meal sizes and non-food expenditures and selling productive assets. In Kenya, the United Nations Children’s Fund is warning that up to 11 million children in east and southern Africa are at risk from hunger, disease and water shortages as a result of this year’s strengthening El Niño weather phenomenon. Kenya and Uganda are bracing for floods, while South Africa and Malawi are already grappling with drought. During an El Niño event, east African countries tend to have heavy rainfall, while southern Africa, along with Australia and Indonesia, usually experiences dryness, even drought and wildfires.