Niño

kill one wind. break the rain six thousand kilometres away.

pull the trade winds slack and watch warm water slosh east — Peru floods, India dries

The trade winds normally pile warm Pacific water up in the west, near Australia and Indonesia, which is why Peru’s coast gets cold water welling up from below and Peru’s fishing boats do well. Slack that one wind and the pile-up has nothing holding it in place, so the warm water sloshes back east toward South America over a few months. That single change removes the pressure difference the Indian monsoon partly depends on and the moisture Australia’s east coast relies on -- three weather systems thousands of kilometres apart, all downstream of the same wind.

Concepts: connectivity, feedback-loops.

An interactive you play with one thumb, on Wundr.