Just when the plants have started to enjoy the long and much -awaited rain ( just showers for now, actually), the local weather authorities have begun to forewarn of the calamities the country is likely to experience due to la nina. ( sigh !)
Just out of curiosity, why is drought given a male gender ( el nino) and floods, a female identity ( la nina)? :)
Does anyone have an explanation?
It's not so much a case of naming droughts or floods either male or female. Historically, the name El Nino came about when certain weather conditions/warm ocean currents in South America were seen to arrive around Christmas, the arrival of Christ as a child. The opposite weather was then named La Nina. But both El Nino and La Nina have different effects in different parts of the world.
El Nino gives us wet winters, which we need .... but sometimes it just gives too much.
Wow, Tropicbreeze, I didn't know that el nino has " religious" roots ....I am a Christian and I always welcome with joy the Christmas season and the celebration of the birth of Christ....but, as you have said, el nino has different effects in different countries and , in my country, it means extreme summer heat...nearing drought! Not at all synonymous with what we feel for the birth celebration of The Child.
Thanks for that interesting info.:)
It means the same here, we're on the same side of the Pacific Ocean. Because it's Spanish, very few people here know what it means, other than the weather term.
Severe drought here too, because of El Nino. We have had only sprinkles in my area this year so far. The hills are all brown and we are battling a brush fire above the pali to Lahaina right now, which has been made difficult to contain because of the inaccessibility and the high winds we have in that area. I feel so sorry for the poor firemen and helicopter pilots who have been working non-stop for the last four days.
