Why the concern with current sea surface temperatures?
”Just the top few metres of our oceans store as much energy as the entirety of our atmosphere. I'm very concerned for later this year into 2024.”—Dr Thomas Smith
Climate Literacy:
During an El Niño event, the trade winds that normally blow from east to west across the tropical Pacific weaken or even reverse direction³⁵.
This causes the warm surface waters that are usually found in the western Pacific along the coasts of Ecuador/Peru/Chile to spread eastward along the equator¹³⁵. As a result, the ocean heat that is normally stored in the western Pacific is released to the atmosphere in the central and eastern Pacific²⁴. This affects the global weather patterns and climate¹²³⁵.
Sources:
(1) El Niño: Pacific Wind and Current Changes Bring Warm, Wild Weather. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/ElNino.
(2) What are El Niño and La Niña, and how do they change the weather?. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-64192508.
(3) El Niño - National Geographic Society. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/el-nino/.
(4) El Niño and Extreme Ocean Heat Are About to Clash for the 2023 .... https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/el-nino-and-extreme-ocean-heat-are-about-to-clash-for-the-2023-hurricane-season/.
(5) El Niño and La Niña: Frequently asked questions. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/el-ni%C3%B1o-and-la-ni%C3%B1a-frequently-asked-questions. 
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