The NOAA-OGP El Nino-Southern Oscillation web site: Information served and lessons learned

The El Niño event of 1997–98 is among the largest climate events experienced by modern societies and information made available both before and during the event saved millions of dollars. This paper reports on the use of the World Wide Web to distribute forecasts and information on the El Niño to a wide variety of users around the world. Also included are some lessons learned about the use of the Internet and the need for information synthesis and improved accessibility to make this medium more productive.