Which statement about the 2015-2016 El Niño is accurate?

Which statement about the 2015-2016 El Niño is accurate?

• A. It had little effect on global weather.
• B. It was one of the strongest El Niño events ever recorded.
• C. It lasted several decades.
• D. It occurred in the 1990s.

Answer: (B)

El Niño events are periods when the central and eastern Pacific warm substantially, and the 2015-2016 episode is notable for its extreme warmth and wide-reaching impacts. During this event, sea-surface temperatures in the Niño3.4 region rose well above normal for many months, with anomalies around +2°C at times, which places it among the strongest El Niño events ever recorded. That level of warmth drove major global weather shifts—heavy rainfall and floods in some areas, drought in others, and a jump in global average temperatures. It lasted about 18 months, not decades, and it occurred in the mid-2010s, not the 1990s. So describing it as one of the strongest El Niño events ever recorded best captures its magnitude and the global effects it produced.

El Niño events are periods when the central and eastern Pacific warm substantially, and the 2015-2016 episode is notable for its extreme warmth and wide-reaching impacts. During this event, sea-surface temperatures in the Niño3.4 region rose well above normal for many months, with anomalies around +2°C at times, which places it among the strongest El Niño events ever recorded. That level of warmth drove major global weather shifts—heavy rainfall and floods in some areas, drought in others, and a jump in global average temperatures. It lasted about 18 months, not decades, and it occurred in the mid-2010s, not the 1990s. So describing it as one of the strongest El Niño events ever recorded best captures its magnitude and the global effects it produced.