Does El Niño play a part in tornado development?
Only indirectly. El Niño is a large-scale ocean feature that influences weather patterns on a global scale. The formation of thunderstorms and tornadoes is largely influenced by small-scale, features such as surface fronts, drylines and outflow boundaries or “gust fronts,” which blow out and downwind from thunderstorms. El Niño influences the jet stream patterns aloft and energizes the storms that follow these upper-air patterns, especially the subtropical jet stream across or south of the southern USA. El Niño-bred storms are generally stronger and move east at lower latitudes than normal, which can lead to more frequent occurrences of the small features that stir up tornadoes. But, El Niño itself does not produce thunderstorms or tornadoes.
