Bigger Than La Nina?...01/21/00

An Associated Press story on the Washington Post site at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/s0000120/aponline042630_000.htm  explains that the Pacific Ocean may be undergoing a dramatic temperature change that could make the unusual weather patterns of the last 18 months the norm for the next 30 years.  Satellite data released yesterday apparently suggested something bigger and longer-lasting than La Nina is happening in the ocean that covers one-third of the Earth.

For the past one and a half years, an area of warming has been developing in the North, West and South Pacific.  Wedged in between is the cooler La Nina water.  William Patzert, an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is quoted as saying: "The persistence of ... warmer and colder than average ocean temperatures tells us there is much more than an isolated La Nina occurring in the Pacific Ocean."  He believes the ocean-wide temperature changes indicate a natural shift that occurs every 20 to 30 years called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation - dominant warm or cool water flip-flops for reasons still unclear, changing weather worldwide.