ISBN 92-808-1071-5 2002, 220 pages US$21.95, paper

La Niña and Its Impacts is based on a meeting of researchers, forecasters, and users of La Niña forecasts, held at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. La Niña, the result of air-sea interaction, can briefly be described as the appearance of cold surface water in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. While people around the globe have become familiar with El Niño and its impacts, its counterpart, La Niña, is not so well known. Researchers at this La Niña Summit indicated that for many societies La Niña events can be as devastating as those of El Niño.

The overriding purpose of the Summit was to draw attention to the importance of improving our understanding of the La Niña phenomenon, identifying what is known, what is not yet known, and what societies need to know in order to prepare for La Niña's impacts. This volume provides the current state of the science of forecasting La Niña as well as case studies of La Niña impacts around the world and in different economic sectors.

La Niña and Its Impacts presents updated La Niña Summit papers to introduce the reader to La Niña and offers a glimpse of the state of scientific knowledge about cold events and their impacts in developing as well as industrialized societies.

Michael H. Glantz is a Senior Scientist in the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group (ESIG), a program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. He is interested in how climate affects society and how society affects climate, especially how the interaction between climate anomalies and human activities affect quality of life around the globe.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Part 1: Introduction to La Niña
Part 2: Aspects of La Niña
Part 3: Country Case Studies
- Introduction
- North America
- Latin America
- Africa
- Asia and the Pacific
Part 4: La Nina and the Media
Part 5: More La Nina Thoughts

Contributors:

Michael McPhadden; James O'Brien; Joseph Tribbia; George Kiladis; Kevin Trenberth; Martin Hoerling; Gerald Meehl; Nicolas Graham; Stephen Zebiak; Anthony Busalacchi; Allan D. Brunner; Ray Garnett; Amir Shabbar; Maurice Roos; Nathan Mantuna; Warren Wooster; Roger Pielke Jr.; Chris Landsea; Guillermo Berri; Pilar Cornejo-Grunauer; Lino Naranjo-Diaz; Norma Ordinola; Peter E.O. Usher; Tsegat Wolde-Georgis; Mark Majodina; Kamal Kishore; A.R. Subbiah; Wang Shao-Wu ; Wei Gao; R.H. Kripalani; Ashwini Kulkarni; Ekram Hossain; Charles "Chip" Guard; Gary Sharp; Tahl Kestin; Mikiyasu Nakayama; John Kermond; Anthony Barnston; Edward Harrison; N.K. Larkin; Arun Kumar; Kenneth Broad; Cecile Penland