Since I was young, I have always been interested in hurricanes. I became increasingly interested after witnessing hurricanes taking place, specifically Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Sandy in New York, when I was in elementary school. Instead of being scared of these natural disasters, I wanted to learn more about them. I followed the news of every major hurricane that impacted the United States, eager to know the most that I could about each hurricane.

I was just 10 years old when Hurricane Irene hit New York and 11 years old when Hurricane Sandy hit. I witnessed these storms ravage my community first-hand, and I remember hearing of my cousin’s house flooding in nearby Long Beach, New York. She was forced to uproot and relocate elsewhere temporarily. These storms wreaked havoc; I was out of school for more than a week, and many of my neighbors went without electricity for many days.

Climate change impacts all people living on the Earth. The El Ni�o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a system which influences the climate around the globe. For this reason, it would be helpful to create a procedure for predicting ENSO each year, allowing the population to understand and prepare for a potential climate in their area, months in advance. This study developed a procedure to create predictions of ENSO every year. This procedure is simple, using basic statistics and computer science to create forecasts more accurate than those currently existing.

Climate change involves complex interactions and changing likelihoods of diverse impacts (IPCC, 2014). In recent decades, changes and variations in climate impacting global agriculture sustainability and food security has been an important concern for our Earth family. Based on my summer internship in the Global Environment and Natural Resources Institute (GENRI), George Mason University, I was luck having the opportunity for working on analysis of climate change and assessment of climate impacts on agriculture under the supervision by my research mentor.

On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall and caused widespread damage along the eastern seaboard. Although it had a weak maximum wind speed of 75 mph, Hurricane Sandy led to a total loss of approximately 51.2 billion dollars. Upon watching the disturbing images of wreckage on television, I was overwhelmed with sadness and curiosity. When I heard news reporters claiming that Sandy was as extremely large in size but its wind speed was not very high, I was surprised that a seemingly weak hurricane could be so destructive.