Anyone who may doubt that we live on a water planet or that what happens at sea has a huge impact for everyone, even those living far inland, need only look to this year’s El Niño . The US East Coast is being battered by a major blizzard this weekend. Does El Niño, a warming of surface waters in the Pacific, have anything to do with the blizzard, a full continent away? Louis Uccellini director of NOAA’s National Weather says that it could have contributed to the storm.  “It really does set the background for this storm to develop and track the way it is tracking.”

The impact of El Niño has not been all bad. After five years of drought on the West Coast, the warmer waters of El Niño have brought much-needed rain to a parched California. Folsom Lake, east of Sacramento, for example, has risen a remarkable 44 feet in just over a month.

On the other hand, warmer Pacific waters have had a disastrous impact on some sea life along the West coast. This year an unprecedented number of dead or starving seals are washing ashore, as their normal prey of anchovies and sardines have moved to cooler waters further north to escape sea temperatures that are 2-4C warmer than average.  Sea lions and ocean birds, particualy brown boobies, halve also been hard hit.

The warmer waters have brought warm water species, such as red tuna crabs and hammerhead sharks, to California’s coast. Some species have been surprising and a bit scary. Highly venomous yellow-bellied sea snakes have appeared on two California beaches. The snakes are normally found only in the tropics.

“What we’re seeing happening is that the snakes are likely moving north because of the El Niño conditions,” said Greg Pauly, a herpetologist at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, adding, “They’re experiencing temperatures that are at the bottom end of what they can tolerate and they’re not foraging or finding food very effectively.”

The good news is that the snakes are not a serious threat to people. “Although highly venomous, the snakes have tiny fangs and small jaws,” Dr. Pauly said. No human deaths by a yellow-bellied sea snake have been documented.