1982–83 El Niño event

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

It led to widespread flooding across the southern United States, droughts in Indonesia and Australia, and lack of snow in northern areas of the United States. The estimated economic impact was over US$8 billion. This El Niño event also led to an abnormal amount of hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean during this time span; the strongest hurricane up to 1983 hit Hawaii during this El Niño event.

It 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 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.

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