According to the US climate agency, the phenomenon that leads to warmer temperatures has returned after three years.
The climate phenomenon El Niño is here and will probably lead to extreme weather events with above-average temperatures this year, as scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have announced.
In contrast to the La Nina climate pattern, which often lowers global temperatures slightly, and has been prevalent over the past three years, El Nino is associated with an increase in temperatures around the world.
“Depending on its magnitude, El Nino can have a number of impacts, such as increasing the risk of heavy rains and droughts in certain locations around the world,” NOAA climate researcher Michelle L’Heureux said in a statement on the website Thursday the NOAA.
“Climate change may amplify or mitigate certain El Niño impacts. “El Nino, for example, could lead to new temperature records, particularly in areas that already have above average temperatures during El Niño,” L’Heureuz noted.
El Nino originates in unusually warm waters in the eastern Pacific near the coast of South America and is often associated with a slowing or reversal of easterly trade winds.
Australia warned this week that El Niño would mean warmer and drier days in a country prone to fierce bushfires, while Japan said a developing El Niño was partly responsible for the warmest spring on record.
The phenomenon’s impact on the United States is weak in the summer but more pronounced from late fall to early spring, NOAA said in its statement.
By winter, there is an estimated 84 percent chance that a “greater than moderate” El Niño will develop and a 56 percent chance that a strong El Niño will occur.
This would typically result in above-average wet conditions in some parts of the country from Southern California to the Gulf of Mexico coast, but above-average dry conditions in the Pacific Northwest and Ohio Valley.
It also increases the likelihood of temperatures above average in the northern parts of the country.
According to a study published last month in the journal Science, this year’s El Niño could result in $3 trillion in global economic losses as extreme weather conditions impact agricultural production and production and encourage the spread of disease.
As a result, governments like Peru have allocated $1.06 billion to deal with the effects of El Niño and climate change. The cyclone-prone Philippines has formed a special government team to deal with the predicted aftermath.