Coastal El Niño 2017 or Simply: The Carnival Coastal Warming Event? (original) (raw)

2017, MOJ Ecology & Environmental Sciences

During February, strong north-easterly trade winds from the Caribbean Sea blew through the Panama isthmus and pushed surface waters (SST up to 29.8°C) southward. This condition, together with the abrupt weakening of south-easterly trade winds, produced a rapid-short lived but intense warming of the surface waters of Niño 1+2 region from February to March 2017. The sudden warming provoked anomalies up to +2.6°C (15 march): i.e. over 29.1°C; at the same time in 3.4, the anomaly was-0.1°C. The ZCIT moved quickly southward from 4-5°N to 8°S in a few days and remained there for 4-6 weeks. The average rain (Jan-Apr; 1980-2010) on Ecuador coast (6 stations) was 4391.5 mm, whilst in 2017, it was 4312.3 mm. The SOI was on average +0.22 (Jan-May 2017) and 0.9 in March. The thermo cline did not deepen below 30 m; during El Niño, it is deeper than 100 m. Sea level anomalies were static around 5 cm, but during El Niño 1997-98, they were over 40 cm. Fisheries were not evidently affected, in fact the Peruvian fishing sector grew >82% in the first semester, mainly due to the anchovy (Engraulis ringens) captures. The Ecuadorian fleet catches of skip jack (Katsuwonus pelamis), yellow fin (Thunnus albacares) and big eye (Thunnus obesus) were 17.5, 8.3 and 50.6 % higher than at the same period in 2016. By mid-May 2017, anomalies in 1+2 fell to 0.4°C and there was a quick cooling down process. Calling this event as "El Niño Costero" is incorrect and brings erroneous and confusing response from society. Hereafter, analogously to the term "El Niño", it is proposed to call this phenomenon "Carnival Coastal Warming" or simply "El Carnaval", as the carnival festivities are in February-March; or even simpler: Rapid Coastal Warming event.