Virginia Climate Advisory
Volume 21/Number 3/Autumn 1997
Virginia Climate Advisory
Volume 21/Number 3/Autumn 1997
El Niño! It's the Spanish reverential term
for the Christ Child and the name which has been
given to
one of the most popular and widely hyped climatic phenomena around these
days.
In your Advisory . . .
El Niño: It's probably the second hottest thing in climate today (playing runner-up to "Global Warming," that is), with just about every print and electronic media outlet devoting copious amounts of space or air time to it over the last few months. It's El Niño, of course, and over the years it has been blamed for everything from bad skiing conditions to outbreaks of rabies.
But what is this climatic menace and what is it really responsible for? What does this portend for Virginia? In response to popular demand, this issue of the Advisory brings you the whole scoop. Maybe you'll sleep better for having read it.
Climate Variability: Is the weather getting stranger? Are we setting more records and seeing more extremes in temperature and precipitation? Will climatic change make the unusual more commonplace? Here, we also try to bring the issue of climatic variability into better focus.
Current Wisdom: And in our Current Wisdom section, find out what the folks in the climatic "trenches" think about "Global Warming." We'll also tell you a bit about the long-term history of El Niño.
Also:
Dr. Patrick Michaels, State Climatologist
Philip J. Stenger, Reasearch Coordinator and Advisory Editor
Paul C. Knappenberger, Senior Analyst
Peter D. Schwartzman, Dustin Hux, Stephen Gawtry and Tracey Lewis, Research Assistants
The Virginia Climate Advisory is a service publication of the Virginia State Climatology Office, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia. The Advisory's purpose is to present information about our climate, its impact and related research findings. We reserve the right to do this in a humorous fashion. The Advisory is mailed to approximately 4,000 subscribers worldwide. We welcome your comments. Subscriptions are available by writing or calling this office (804-924-0548).