The El Nino is not THE problem
India has been in the grip of extreme heat for several months now. No doubt, you may have heard that this has something to do with the El Niño. In this blog post, I clarify some popular misconceptions about this phenomenon, its impacts and what constructive insights can be taken from this harsh ordeal. For this blog post, I will rely on the example of this Instagram video which, at the time of writing, had 820+ thousand likes. Clearly, it would have influenced a lot of people's opinion on the ongoing extreme heat. As a climate scientist, I find certain aspects of the video misleading in ways that are important to rectify. The video In short, the video discusses the role of the developing 'Super El Niño' in making Indian cities unlivable right now. It also discusses the concept of the wet bulb temperature, and how important it is to distinguish it from the dry bulb temperature / air temperature. Before I delve into what's wrong with the video, let me say two things ve...