Pacific Ocean 1982 typhoon season

El Niño

Date: June, 1982-August, 1983

Place: Equatorial Pacific Ocean and bordering continents

Result: More than 2,000 dead, $13 billion in damage

Before 1982, “El Niño” was a term known almost exclusively to scientists studying the ocean, atmosphere, and weather. After 1983, so widespread and serious were El Niño’s destructive consequences that the phenomenon became known worldwide as the largest force disrupting world weather patterns.

The El Niño of 1982 developed anomalously. Previous El Niños had begun in April with waters warming off the Peruvian coast and spreading westward. In this case the temperature rise started in the central Pacific and flowed eastward in June and August, and the barometric pressure increased in the western Pacific. Moreover, while the warm water moved slowly eastward toward South America, the westerly trade winds continued blowing unabated; normally they weaken. Volcanic dust lofted into the atmosphere from the eruption of El Chichón in Mexico masked some of these developments from satellites, and partly because of this, the beginning of a full-blown El Niño in November took observers by surprise. Before it ended in August, 1983, five continents had suffered its devastating effects.

Its intensity was unheralded. The Southern Oscillation—indicated by the difference in air pressure between Darwin, Australia, and Tahiti—was never before so great. Sea surface temperatures off the South American coast soared to almost 8 degrees Celsius above normal, another record. The mass of warm water increased evaporation, which fueled storms that lashed the coasts and Pacific islands near the equator.

Six hurricanes swept over Tahiti and nearby Tuamotu archipelago in the central Pacific; the area had not seen a hurricane for seventy-five years. More than 7,500 houses were flattened or lost their roofs, and 15 people died. The destruction ended tourism for the season, a main source of income. A hurricane also hit the Hawaiian Islands, which otherwise had a drought. Elsewhere in the Pacific scientists noticed that millions of seabirds deserted their nests and the warm water damaged reefs.

Ecuador and Peru were first hurt economically, then physically. The planktonic nutrients that normally rise from the seafloor with upwelling cold currents dwindled when El Niño’s warm water arrived. Schools of commercial fish vanished. Fishermen were idled, as were industries dependent upon fishing, such as fishmeal production. Because the coast of both countries is very arid, when El Niño-spawned storms arrived, their torrential rains turned into floods that swelled rivers and raged through canyons. As a result, thousands of houses, mostly in rural towns or urban slums, were washed away, along with sections of roads and more than a dozen major bridges. At least 600 people were killed in the process. Important export crops—particularly rice, cacao, and bananas—also were heavily damaged, further crippling the national economies.

The west coasts of Central and North America soon experienced similar conditions. California was especially hard hit. Salmon and other cold-water fish departed north, hurting the local fishing industry, while seabirds died and tropical fish, such as barracuda, invaded the coastal waters. High sea levels, as much as 8 inches above normal, combined with storm-propelled waves, battered the coast. Wind gusts damaged houses, and a tornado even tore the roof off the Los Angeles Convention Center before ravaging the Watts district. Rain fell until rivers overflowed and hillsides were so soaked that mudslides occurred at record rates. In the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains, snowpacks reached record depths. Altogether, more than 10,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, and the economic toll on the West Coast, which included extensive damage to roads and agriculture, was estimated at $1.8 billion. Meanwhile, in the American South, heavy rains fell, nearly pushing the Mississippi River over its levees. The Atlantic hurricane season, however, was short and mild.

Across the Pacific, under the abnormally high pressure over the Indonesia-Australia region, conditions were dry. The drought in Australia starved thousands of livestock and wild animals and turned brushland parched and dusty. Immense dust storms dumped tons of dirt on cities, Melbourne most spectacularly, and brush fires raced out of control. At least 8,000 people were made homeless in the fires, and there were 75 fatalities. Late in the El Niño, downpours in eastern Australia led to flooding that drowned yet more livestock. Indonesia saw crops fail in the drought. In one area 340 people starved because of it. On the island of Borneo, forest fires, spread from land burned off by farmers, expanded unchecked. The smoke fouled cities, endangered air traffic, and caused one port to close temporarily. The fires were called one of the worst environmental disasters of the century.

Record drought also came to Africa, hurting the southern and Sahelian regions most. In some areas of South Africa 90 percent of cattle died as the grassland turned to barren hardpan. Tens of thousands of wild animals, from rodents to elephants, perished. To escape famine, the poor countries of the region had to rely on food shipments from North America. Many other effects, such as delayed monsoons in southern India and droughts in Brazil and Mexico, were teleconnections to El Niño. Scientists suspect that a cold snap in Europe and droughts in the Midwest, northern China, and central Russia might also have occurred because of El Niño, at least in part.

In addition to bringing the El Niño phenomenon forcefully to public awareness, the 1982-1983 event had three consequences. It spurred much scientific research aimed at making predictions of future El Niños reliable. It encouraged farmers in affected areas to reconsider how they manage their crops and livestock. Finally, it demonstrated dramatically that coastal cities, which are growing increasingly crowded, are vulnerable to El Niño-related natural disasters.

Bibliography

Babkina, A. M., ed. El Niño: Overview and Bibliography. Hauppauge, N.Y.: Nova Science, 2003.

Canby, Thomas Y. “El Niño’s Ill Wind.” National Geographic, February, 1984, 144.

D’Aleo, Joseph S. The Oryx Resource Guide to El Niño and LaNiña. Westport, Conn.: Oryx Press, 2002.

Fagan, Brian. “El Niños That Shook the World.” In Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Niño and the Fate of Civilization. New York: Basic Books, 1999.

Nash, J. Madeleine. El Niño: Unlocking the Secrets of the Master Weather-Maker. New York: Warner Books, 2002.