User:Carson Clements/sandbox

Article Evaluation

In terms of content within this article, there was no information that was irrelevant to the topic, and nothing stood out as a distracting section. Every link appears to function properly and there is nothing egregious regarding the article stub itself. However, the amount of information provided by this tragically-short article is severely lacking in terms of depth, especially when compared to other El Niño events linked below the list of references. Furthermore, while none of the information provided appears to be out of date, there is a disproportionate amount of information that could be added to the stub, with the entire page needing a serious renovation. On a more positive note, this page does do a sufficient but brief job in noting a few of the consequences as a result of the event, but it fails to discuss the meteorological synopsis of this particular occasion of the El Niño phenomenon nor does it dive into the details in any manner, much less an easily comprehensible but scientific approach. Continuing on that optimistic outlook, the tone of the article is neutral yet informative, not straying from Wikipedia's main purpose of being a usable, informative site that everyone who reads through its pages can understand the topic of each article. In general, the sources cited by the article are reliable, unbiased, and factual sources; however, the fact that this article only possesses 5 sources in total is concerning. While these sources work together well to create an article with an appropriate tone, the issue lies within the fact that there simply isn't enough content that can be pulled from these sources to make a suitably lengthy article to fully discuss and explain this topic. Finally, I've noticed that this article has seen a severe lack in activity on the talk page. While that isn't by itself a bad sign, this absence of communication combined with the rest of the information regarding the current state of this article concerns me. I hope that through my efforts (and others who are willing to contribute alongside me), we'll be able to turn this article from a stub to a hub. Bad jokes or puns aside, I'll be working diligently on modifying this article, to the best of my abilities, until it is a complete, informative, yet not overly technical discussion of the 1982-1983 El Niño event.

Add to an Article

All requirements were met for this assignment.

EDIT: To be more specific, allow me to go through each assignment criteria.

1 pt: At least one new source from Assignment 2 has been added to the Wikipedia article. The 5th source in my "Sources/Bibliography" section was added to the article I have been working on.

1 pt: The citation is relevant and appropriate to the statement where it is cited. This criteria has been easily met through the inclusion of information that necessitated the citation of said source.

1 pt: A complete citation has been added for new source. One can easily see that this has been completed in the appropriate section of the Wikipedia page.

1 pt: An image has been added to the Wikipedia article. In the top right corner of the article I have been working on, an image uploaded to Wikimedia Commons has been added.

1 pt: A clear and concise caption for the image has been added. In that same corner, an insightful yet brief caption has been added.

1 pt: The added image does not violate Wikipedia copyright policies. Seeing as it has been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and was found through the preferred creative commons search engine (and the license was checked to make sure that it could be published to Wikimedia Commons), this criteria has been met.

1 pt: The added text does not violate Wikipedia plagiarism policies. Though it may seem tedious to repeat, the information in the previous point also fulfills this one.

1 pt: The article has been linked to 3-5 Wikipedia articles. I have gone ahead and added links to various other Wikipedia articles, such as sea surface temperature, winter, and mid-latitude within the main text of the article I have been editing.

1 pt: The article has been linked from 2-3 other Wikipedia articles. In the 1983 Atlantic hurricane season, Galapagos penguin, and 1982 Atlantic hurricane season Wikipedia pages, I have made edits that now include references back to the Wikipedia page I've been editing, the 1982-83 El Niño event.

1 pt: All published changes have been annotated. On each of the articles modified in question, I made sure to annotate each and every single one of my changes.

1 pt: Assignment is completed by the deadline. All of the above criteria were met at or before 11:59 PM ET on September 24th, 2019.

Draft Your Contribution

The 1982–83 El Niño event was one of the strongest El Niño events since records were kept.

It led to droughts in Indonesia and Australia, widespread flooding across the southern United States, lack of snow in the northern United States, and an anomalously warm winter across much of the mid-latitude regions of North America and Eurasia. The estimated global economic impact was over US$8 billion. This El Niño event also led to an abnormal number of hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean during this time span; the strongest hurricane up to 1983 hit Hawaii during the event.

Meteorological Progression

Due to a variety of reasons, ranging from the lack of knowledge among the general public regarding El Niño events to the fact that a volcanic eruption in Mexico from El Chichón distracted many scientists from noticing the telltale signs, this event escaped the notice of the scientific world until 1983. As pointed out by Walter Sullivan, signs began to appear in early 1982, when a noticeable and measurable drop in atmospheric pressure was noted in the central and southeastern Pacific compared to pressures found off the coast of Darwin, Australia. As the year progressed, more and more signs pointed towards an upcoming powerful El Niño event; from the collapse and subsequent reversal of the trade easterlies that traditionally prevent upwelling from occurring in the Western Pacific to the various atmospheric signatures that can all be associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, these indicators all pointed to the fact that one of the most powerful El Niño events of the 20th Century had begun.

Effects on Tropical Cyclone Development

As a result of the event, the 1982 Atlantic hurricane season and 1983 Atlantic hurricane season both saw a reduced number of storms and a decrease in their average strength. Over this two-year period, the most notable storm that formed over this period was Hurricane Alicia, a minimal Category 3 storm that made landfall in Texas, causing US$3 billion dollars worth in damages. The rest of the storms that formed during these two seasons were relatively unremarkable; over the two seasons, there were only 9 named storms, 5 hurricanes, and two major hurricanes. One can expect to equal or even beat these numbers in a single season, as the tropical Atlantic typically churns out 10 named storms, 5 to 6 hurricanes, and 2 to 3 major hurricanes in a single year. Despite Hurricane Debby in 1982 reaching Category 4 strength, it never made landfall.

In contrast, the 1982 Pacific hurricane season and the 1983 Pacific hurricane season were both unusually active. The 1982 season ranks as the 4th-most active season alongside 2018, while the 1983 season was the longest Pacific hurricane season recorded at the time (it was later surpassed by the 2015 and 2016 seasons). Notable storms include the aforementioned Hurricane Iwa, Hurricane Paul, and Hurricane Tico.

Despite expectations of diminished tropical cyclone activity, the western Pacific typhoon seasons of 1982 and 1983 were hardly affected by the ongoing El Niño event.

Impacts

In South America, the 1982-83 El Niño event led to declines of 77% among Galápagos penguins and 49% among flightless cormorants. In addition to these losses in penguins and cormorants, this El Niño event caused a quarter of adult native sea lions and fur seals on Peru's coast to starve, while the entirety of both seals' pup populations perished. In the Galápagos Islands, the event killed much of the macroalgae in the area, and Desmarestia tropica is now possibly extinct from overgrazing by herbivores caused by overfishing of predator fish resulting from the event. In Ecuador, heavy rainfall and flooding led to high fish and shrimp harvests; however, the large amounts of standing water also allowed mosquito populations to thrive, leading to large outbreaks of malaria. In just this country alone, the economic impact from this event in regards to damages caused by this flooding were estimated at over US$400 million.

In Indonesia and Australia, one of the worst droughts that the country had ever experienced occurred as a direct result of this event. The cooler waters led to the formation of less convection in the region, which in turn led to less rainfall over the two nations. The damages from crop failure and loss of livestock easily surpassed US$100 million.

North America and Eurasia also faced unusually warm temperatures as a result of this event. The eastern United States in particular saw the warmest winter in roughly 25 years. Other side-effects, such as an uptick in mosquitoes, a loss in salmon off the coast of Alaska and Canada, and an increase in shark attacks off the western United States coast can all also be at least partially blamed upon this event. Several temperature records across both landmasses were broken as a result.

Sources/Bibliography

1) Barber, Richard T.; Chavez, Francisco P. (23 January 1986). "Ocean variability in relation to living resources during the 1982–83 El Niño". Nature. 319: 279–285 – via Nature.

2) Cane, Mark A. (16 December 1983). "Oceanographic Events During El Niño". Science. 222: 1189–1195 – via JSTOR.

3) Glynn, Peter W. (1988). "El Niño—Southern Oscillation 1982-1983: Nearshore Population, Community, and Ecosystem Responses". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 19 (1): 309–346. doi:10.1146/annurev.es.19.110188.001521.

4) McCulloch, Malcolm T.; Gagan, Michael K.; Mortimer, Graham E.; Chivas, Allan R.; Isdale, Peter J. (1994-06-01). "A high-resolution Sr/Ca and δ18O coral record from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and the 1982–1983 El Niño". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 58 (12): 2747–2754. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(94)90142-2. ISSN 0016-7037.

5) Quiroz, Roderick S. (1983-08-01). "The Climate of the "El Niño" Winter of 1982–83—A Season of Extraordinary Climatic Anomalies". Monthly Weather Review. 111 (8): 1685–1706. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1983)1112.0.CO;2. ISSN 0027-0644.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/GL012i003p00125

https://137.110.142.7/publications/CR/1985/8565.PDF

https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0469(1985)042%3C0677%3APCOAIS%3E2.0.CO%3B2