El Nino slows the Earth’s spin

El Nino has had such a large effect on the planet that it has actually made the Earth spin slower than normal.

El Nino events warmed up the waters in the Pacific ocean around the tropics and this led to strong westerly thermal winds. These winds made the atmosphere surrounding the earth spin slightly faster than usual and due to the conservation of angular momentum, the Earth slowed down slightly to compensate.

The net result is that each Earth day is now ever so slightly longer, although it is unlikely that anyone will notice the difference – each day is now around 1 millisecond longer than it was previously.

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