Previous Year Question
El Niño is a complex weather system that appears once every three to seven years. What does the term “El Niño” mean?
Correct Answer: B
Detailed Solution
El Niño is a Spanish term meaning “The Little Boy” or “Christ Child”. According to NOAA, fishermen along the South American coast, particularly near Peru, used this name for the appearance of unusually warm surface waters in the Pacific because the warming tended to become noticeable around Christmas time.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), El Niño is characterized by unusually warm sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. It represents the warm phase of the coupled ocean atmosphere system known as ENSO (El Niño–Southern Oscillation) and can influence rainfall and temperature patterns across many regions of the world.