An act of God
In the Atlantic Ocean, the hurricane season is about to reach its peak, while in the Pacific, El Niño is threatening unseasonable weather all around the world
AS THE world has learned, it ignores El Niño's gentle balm at its peril. The name—Spanish for “The Child”, referring to the infant Jesus—was originally given to a tepid current that comes to the coast of Peru and Ecuador every Christmas. This reduces the fish population slightly and gives local fishermen some seasonal time off. Now, though, the term is reserved for the exceptionally warm and long-lived currents that come every two to seven years, beginning in the summer and lasting for as much as 22 months.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “An act of God”
From the July 19th 1997 edition
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