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Animation of the Sea Surface Temperatures during an El Niño Event -
The evolution of an El Niñoevent can be seen in maps of ocean surface temperature plotted as “anomalies,” or departures from the climatological monthly averages.
The anomalies reached about 7° F in early 1983, and were especially large in the region offshore of Peru. A smaller area of positive anomalies of about
4° F appeared around Baja California; this secondary warming extended northward to the waters offshore of the West Coast of the United States.
While a warming of 4° F is considerably smaller than the warming along the coast of Peru, it is large enough to be readily apparent to a swimmer.
The 1982-1983 El Niño was the stimulus for an intensive scientific program known as TOGA (Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere), which led to major
advances in monitoring, understanding, and predicting El Niño.
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