No matter what news channel you tune into it’s guaranteed you will hear about El Niño, which is going to hit this winter. 

El Niño occurs when the ocean’s surface warms, causing the moisture in the air to rise. The Mid-Atlantic is currently experiencing El Niño, which will affect our winter weather patterns.  

Due to El Niño, northern states will experience higher than-average temperatures, and the southern states will experience below-average temperatures. 

The development of an El Niño is linked to the trade winds. Trade winds are winds that blow east to west just north and south of the equator. 

An El Niño occurs when there is a combination of warm water buildup along the equator in the eastern Pacific coupled with weaker trade winds.

Internet content creator and science communicator, Hank Green attended Eckerd College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry, and then obtained a master’s in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana.

 He is also a video creator and entrepreneur which you can find on YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and other social media platforms. 

Green’s TikTok gained its fame as a result of teaching people about science comprehensible terms. He has a section on his account dedicated to climate change and how our oceans and environment are deteriorating at a high rate.

In a recent TikTok, Green says, “The Atlantic Ocean is a lot hotter than it has ever been before, well not ever, but like you know, in our era. I’ve seen this talked about as if we were at the beginning of an exponential spike, and everything about to end, like all multicellular life is going to get so hot it’s just going to be bacteria left. We’re not there yet, we’re not anywhere close to there yet, but this is very bad.”

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, El Niño has a 71% chance of it becoming a strong event.

NASA stated that, due to climate change, the movement of water north and south throughout the Atlantic might be weakening which could become a problem.

For us in Virginia, it is predicted that we will have a freezing cold winter with plenty of precipitation, meaning we should be having an abundance of snow.