El Nino

Even retailers couldn't escape the reach of El Nino in February. Weather conditions helped boost sales in regions with unseasonably mild climates but dragged the numbers down in areas hardest hit by the weather phenomenon.As spring-like temperatures drew consumers out to shop for lightweight clothing and home furnishings, monthly sales rose in most of the nation's stores, major retailers reported yesterday.The average gain of 6.8 percent -- as measured by the Bloomberg composite same-store sales index -- beat analysts' estimates of about 5 percent.

The Baltimore area's January warm-weather streak -- which recorded its third consecutive day of 60-plus-degree ' temperatures yesterday -- may seem odd to those recovering from last week's freezing temperatures, but it's actually not unusual.In fact, there was a similar warm spell last January, when temperatures went from a cool high of 33 degrees on Jan. 1 at Baltimore-Washington International Airport to 69 degrees four days later -- the record high for Jan. 5.This January "is almost a carbon copy, give or take 5 degrees each day," said Barry Goldsmith, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va. "That's kind of ironic."

PASADENA, Calif. -- The El Nino current wreaking havoc with the world's weather is resurging with new strength across the tropical Pacific Ocean, according to satellite data released yesterday by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.The new satellite measurements, which show the current regaining momentum after receding dramatically earlier this month, bolster federal forecasts of a fierce, tempestuous winter, climate experts said. Drawn from the Topex/Poseidon satellite, the images indicate that El Nino grew by 10 percent in the first 10 days of December, after shrinking by the same amount at the end of November.

Amid springlike December temperatures, a small group of state and private weather officials met in a bunker in Pikesville yesterday and shivered with anxiety.They were planning what to do if the weather phenomenon known as El Nino turns Maryland into a snowy, icy nightmare this year, as it has in the past when December was unseasonably mild."The greatest risk is when December is very warm," said Barbara Watson, a National Weather Service meteorologist who lectured representatives of 32 organizations at Maryland Emergency Management Agency headquarters.

WHAT IS EL NINO? Will it cause massive climatic changes? Will it ultimately threaten the very survival of humanity? Does it contain fat?These are just some of the alarming questions that are raised by the phenomenon of El Nino, which in recent months has been blamed for virtually everything abnormal that is happening in the world, including the singing group Hanson.To help you understand why you need to become alarmed about El Nino, let's take a moment here to review how the Earth's weather works:Scientists who study weather -- who are called "meteorologists," to distinguish them from scientists who study meteors, who are called "scientists who study meteors" -- tell us that weather is caused by the atmosphere, which is a gaseous mixture containing oxygen, nitrogen, monosodium glutamate and radio waves.

The El Nino phenomenon has been known for centuries in Peru. Fishermen there noted the arrival of warm Pacific waters, and a season of poor fishing, around Christmas. They named it El Nino - a Spanish reference to the Christ child. This year's event has already caused drought, fires, floods and storms that have killed hundreds of people and caused millions of dollars in damage around the Pacific. But El Nino (pronounced el neen-yo) can also bring benefits, such as a quiet Atlantic hurricane season and tropical game fish in northern waters.

Thanks to the influence of El Nino, Marylanders will face a doubled risk of at least one snowstorm this winter with an accumulation of 9 inches or more and Ocean City is at greater risk from damaging nor'easters, National Weather Service officials said yesterday.Such snowstorms have struck the Baltimore area in four of the eight most recent El Nino winters, they said. Those years include 1983, when a 22.8-inch storm paralyzed the city, and 1987, when three storms each dropped 9 to 12 inches of snow.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- El Nino, the abnormal warming of the Pacific waters stretching from the equator up to Oregon, is going to come with a cost.It's already affecting weather conditions worldwide, and that's making some people nervous. From agriculture to petroleum, capital markets to insurance, the economic consequences from El Nino soon will be evident in the upper Midwest."The name El Nino fans the flames of uncertainty, and that always has an impact in markets," said Helen Pound, a commodities analyst and trader in Minneapolis.

In what is believed to be the effects of El Nino, a mass of hot air from the South sent temperatures soaring yesterday, prompting people to shed shirts, dine outdoors and scramble for air conditioning to escape the July-like heat.The temperature hit 89 yesterday at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, falling short of a record, but reaching well above the 71-degree high normally recorded for yesterday's date, according to the National Weather Service.John Newkirk, a National Weather Service spokesman, blamed the sauna-like conditions on an air mass from the South shipped into Maryland by El Nino, the climatic pattern blamed for floods and droughts worldwide after beginning with a pulse of sun-warmed water in the equatorial Pacific.

HONOLULU -- There is trouble brewing in the steamy heat of the tropical Pacific, where scientists say they're watching what could become the most powerful El Nino event ever recorded.El Nino is an ancient, but only recently recognized, eastward pulse of sun-warmed water in the equatorial Pacific. With growing confidence, climatologists have linked it to patterns of subsequent droughts, floods, typhoons and other costly weather extremes around the globe.Forecasts based on El Nino data aren't yet foolproof.