New York Times: Clouds help amplify El Nios effect on the atmosphere to a greater degree than once thought, a new study reports. In El Nio conditions, sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean become unusually warm and tall thunderheads, known as cumulonimbus clouds, form over the water. Above them, a layer of colder cirrus clouds also appears. The cirrus clouds trap heat. They act as a blanket and further warm the atmosphere, said Thorsten Mauritsen, a meteorologist at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology...