In this way small changes in the ocean and wind currents continue to magnify each other until a full-blown El Nino occurs. " The increased evaporation intensifies coastal storms, and rainfall inland may be much higher than normal"(Garrison, 1999). The impacts of El Nino upon climate in temperature show up most during wintertime. Most El Nino winters are not that cold over western Canada and parts over the United States, and wet over the Southern United States and from Texas to Florida. (Whipple, 1998) .

             According to Helvarg (1998), El Nino occurs at irregular intervals ranging from two years to a decade, and no two events are ever exactly alike. The 1982-83 El Nino was a surprise because it was not proceeded by a period of stronger easterlies on the Equator. It also occurred late in the calendar year. The economic impact was large. The Equador and Peru fishing industries suffered heavily. Up to a hundred inches of rain fell in Equador and Peru. The new vegetation swarmed grasshoppers, which increased the toad and bird population. Further west they found abnormal wind patterns and this shifted typhoons and sent them to Hawaii and Tahiti, which was unaccustomed to severe weather. The total amount of damage was $8 billion. "This years El Nino [1997-1998] has been the strongest ever recorded" (Helvarg, 1998). This El Nino drought had more of an impact than its rains. El Nino also infuriated tornado and storm activity in the Southeast. " In Alabama 34 people were killed and some 5,000 acres of trees knocked down in April when deadly tornadoes struck" (Helvarg, 1998). This record braking tornado event was spawned by the collision of warm, moist air that lingered over the warm Pacific and a polar front that had dropped from the north. (Garrison, 1999) In parts of Northwest U.S. there where massive clear-cut logging operations have to take place on mountain slopes, El Nino"s rains and big surfs contributed to what has become a pattern of landslide and flooding.