A Council of a Hundred Short Experts Predicts El Niño's Whims
The barometer in the port of Papeete on Tahiti and the one in Darwin, Australia, are separated by 7,400 kilometers. When one shows high pressure, the other often shows low, and this difference, called the Southern Oscillation, drives rainfall from India to Brazil. Predicting it even a month ahead is a problem with a century-long history.