Can Winds Have That Much Effect on Ocean Tides?
You bet. Just ask a surfer. But the effects can go way beyond tides. Consider the so-called El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the South Pacific. Periodic shifts in wind patterns over the Pacific Ocean help contribute to a sloshing back and forth of the entire ocean. Here we can use a bathtub analogy that works: think of water sloshing back and forth in a tub. The ocean water sloshes in one direction during El Nino and it piles up along the South American coast; it sloshes in the other direction during La Nina and it piles up near Asia and Australia. The shifts from El Nino to La Nina have far-reaching effects — influencing rainfall patterns and temperatures around the globe. It has been speculated by some that the current high tide conditions along the East Coast are related to a similar, but not nearly as globally important, phenomenon known as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). During the positive phase of the NAO there is a large difference between high pressure over the Atl
