ISTOCKPHOTO, ALXPIN
At the end of summer 2006, scientists at NASA, the Department of Defense, the US Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were keeping a particularly watchful eye on the Earth’s climate. For several weeks, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites and buoys had recorded above-normal sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Eastern Pacific and Western Indian Oceans. After a few weeks of sustained and abnormally high sea-surface temperatures, increasing amounts of rain began to fall in the Horn of Africa.
By September, nearly three months after the first temperature anomalies had been recorded, satellites were already showing a marked greening of the vegetation in Eastern Africa.
In light of the series of events, scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center ...
