El Niño and La Niña: Do They Affect Caving?

[Space Doubt Caver]

On my journey through life I deep dive in thought about the geological wonders of our planet, which I am sure most of you here do too.

It brings me to my question, as titled "El Niño and La Niña: Do They Affect Caving?"

Has anyone ever studied or found a correlation to weather patterns while caving when these geological events where happening, and do they have an affect on caving E.G. More flooding.

These events typically occur every 2 to 7 years and can last from 9 to 12 months, & has significant impacts on global weather patterns.

More recently many of us have seen caves flooding the past year some caves that haven flooded in decades like Poachers Cave last year, as this drains into the Milwr tunnel but it was flood to the roof for some months, as i had observed this myself, and this makes me wonder is there any correlation between these great geological events and flooding in caves?

Thank you
[Edit] - Oceanographical / Meteorological phenomenon

 

[Pitlamp]

That's a really interesting question; I'll await responses from folk with more knowledge than me, with eagerness.
I'd say it was an oceanographical / meteorological phenomenon though, rather than geological? But such words ar far too big for new year's day!

 

[PeteHall]

Agree with @Pitlamp, this is a very interesting question and look forward to hearing if anyone here has the expertise to shine any more light on it.

There seems little doubt that the recent El Nino has contributed to the warmer/milder weather during 2024, which has doubtless had an impact on rainfall. Increased rainfall would doubtless have sn impact on caves and caving, so looking at the connection is logical.

Based on my extremely limited understanding, it seems unwise to attribute any specific weather event to any specific long-term cycle, however looking at patterns in data may well show a statistically significant trend (or it may not).

Apparently we're in store for a colder period in near-future years, so looking at historic patterns may give some useful (or at least interesting) insight.

 

[Pitlamp]

Yeah - and we may get some vis at last!

 

[PeteHall]

Yeah - and we may get some vis at last!

I've got vis all year

I just need to find some more cave to go with it...

 

[Space Doubt Caver]

This might be a good place to start for anyone who understands this kind of data: https://ggweather.com/enso/oni.htm

it records El Niño and La Niña Years and Intensities.