El Nino

[j.sabourn]

If not already posted a brief description of El Niño for those not aware...

Is a periodic reversal of Pacific Ocean currents that effect global weather conditions.
In a normal year warm water in the Pacific flows West towards towards Australia and Indonesia. There it evaporates quickly creating storm clouds over Australia.
Warm water off the South American coast is replaced by cold, nutrient rich Water coming up from Antartica. Creating good fishing grounds.
In an El Niño year the winds and currents that hold warm water in place off Australia weaken. The warm water flows back eastward towards Peru and spreads out along the coast of the Americas . Here it evaporates and creates rain clouds and thunderstorms . Rain fails to materialise in Australia, causing drought. The thunderstorms drive warm humid air high into the atmosphere , where it interferes with the normal currents of air circulation and unpredictable weather conditions as far away as Europe.

So a normal year ..warm surface currents in the Pacific flow westwards and bring rain.
An El Niño year they flow in reverse causing storms and drought.
JS

[happy daze john in oz]

La Nina is the reverse and what the world is now experiencing.
Floods in NSW and Queensland with heavy rains in Victoria and other parts.

La Nina usually follows the El Nino year but there is no regular time for that to occur.
It can go ten years or more then hit big time.

For us here in Oz it gives the reason for a land of droughts and flooding rains.
Droughts here can last for years, the last one here in Victoria in the 90's went on for ten.
For five of those we were on water restrictions of 155 liters per day.

[Bill Morrison]

#2 John. From my school geography days I was always fascinated with the climatic change that takes place at Lake Eyre Australia and later watching T.V. programmes how life could exist in such extremes conditions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Eyre

[j.sabourn]

#3. Bill most people who don’t know Australia view it as a sun drenched Bondi Beach and that’s it. It’s a country with vast differences of scenery and life in general. My 11 years of working life out here I probably saw more of Australia than the average shore worker as my call outs to different parts involved out ports in all the states. Most involved flying into the nearest airport , picking up a hire care and sometimes driving over a 100 miles to some out of the way place , the person I was relieving taking over the car and doing the reverse. Working off the northern end of Australia in the Timor sea usually involved picking up a helicopter lift
in some jungle clearing and in one instance there were still land mines laid from the last war. Most Aiustralians I doubt if they know these places still exist.Australia gave me a new lease on life due to being so different from the UK. In Western Australia you can drive for hundreds of miles and not see another car, on the other hand you can get stuck in traffic in the cities. It is a country of choice you choose what life style suits.Cheers JS

[j.sabourn]

#5.. just a short one for anyone not in the know , but most seamen should already know this. On the smaller type vessels and trades similar to the UK and H.T. as once was. Australia has State certification and in some cases working offshore say in Western Australia a state certificate from Queensland would not be viable. The Federal certification covers all however and this is what once was in Britain the foreign going certification , now titled different. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Oz, she is a big beautiful but at times brutal country.

Go north into the Territory and see the real Oz. Drive the Nulabor or go to the Simpson Desert.
Go days without seeing any one else, only the occasional road train, and when you see one get out of the way.

But it has a beauty hard to express, it has a character that cannot be found anywhere else.
There is no other country like it, and it can take over your soul very easily, it has mine so we travel as much as we can to see whet there is.