IN an El Nino year, weather systems around the world become very unpredictable. This is most noticeable in the Pacific region. In the El Nino of 1997-98, massive floods caused widespread devastation in many parts of South America, making many thou-sands of people homeless. It also triggered a hurricane, bringing torrential rain to the deserts of California and Nevada. In the west of the region, El Nino brings hot, dry weather in what ought to be a rainy season. In the past, this has caused forest fires in Australia and Indonesia.
The 1997–98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño–Southern Oscillation events in recorded history, resulting in widespread droughts, flooding and other natural disasters across the globe. It caused an estimated 16% of the world’s reef systems to die, and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 °C, compared to the usual increase of 0.25 °C associated with El Niño events.
It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia. It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997–98 and one of Indonesia’s worst droughts on record. 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history (up until then).
The 1997–98 El Nino Event had various effects on tropical cyclone activity around the world, with more tropical cyclones than average occurring in the Pacific basins. This included the Southern Pacific basin between 160°E and 120°W, where 16 tropical cyclones in the South Pacific were observed during the 1997–98 season compared to an average of around 8 The area where most of the tropical cyclones developed was shifted eastwards, with parts of the Cook Islands and French Polynesia impacted as a result. In the West Pacific basin, the season saw a record of 11 super typhoons, with 10 of them reaching Category 5 intensity. In the east Pacific basin, the 1997 Season featured two Category 5 hurricanes, Guillermo and Linda, the latter of which was the strongest on record before Patricia took that title during the 2015 season. The North Pacific basin broke the record for having the most tropical cyclones reaching Category 4 and 5 intensities with 17 that season. However, the 2015 season surpassed it with 21 tropical cyclones during the 2014–16 El Niño event.
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