Question

El Niño noun Each year around Christmas time, a warm equatorial current flows southward along the coast of Peru. In the 19th century, Peruvian fisherman named that annual current "El Niño" in honor of the Christ child (el niño means "the child" in Spanish). Later, when scientists noted that in some years this warm current flow is more intense than usual, they adopted the name and applied it to that more potent but erratic climatic phenomenon. Now El Niño is used almost exclusively for the severe episodes rather than for the annual ones to which it was originally applied. : an irregularly recurring flow of unusually warm surface waters from the Pacific Ocean toward and along the western coast of South America that prevents upwelling of nutrient-rich cold deep water and that disrupts typical regional and global weather patterns

Accepted Answer

September 3, 2014 el-NEEN-yoh Representatives of the Pacific Island countries met in Fiji in 1999 to discuss the climatic impacts of the 1997-98 El Niño. "Forecasters have been pointing to a developing weak to possibly moderate El Niño as a reason why there will be fewer storms this year." - Bill Fortier, Telegram & Gazette (Massachusetts), August 11, 2014

Word	El Niño
Date	September 3, 2014
Type	noun
Syllables	el-NEEN-yoh
Etymology	Each year around Christmas time, a warm equatorial current flows southward along the coast of Peru. In the 19th century, Peruvian fisherman named that annual current "El Niño" in honor of the Christ child (el niño means "the child" in Spanish). Later, when scientists noted that in some years this warm current flow is more intense than usual, they adopted the name and applied it to that more potent but erratic climatic phenomenon. Now El Niño is used almost exclusively for the severe episodes rather than for the annual ones to which it was originally applied.
Examples	Representatives of the Pacific Island countries met in Fiji in 1999 to discuss the climatic impacts of the 1997-98 El Niño. "Forecasters have been pointing to a developing weak to possibly moderate El Niño as a reason why there will be fewer storms this year." - Bill Fortier, Telegram & Gazette (Massachusetts), August 11, 2014
Definition	: an irregularly recurring flow of unusually warm surface waters from the Pacific Ocean toward and along the western coast of South America that prevents upwelling of nutrient-rich cold deep water and that disrupts typical regional and global weather patterns

El Niño Warm Current Coast Annual Flow Climatic