El Niño is a natural phenomenon, based on temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, which affects the weather over large parts of the world. One of the consequences is that it is getting a little warmer in many places.
The phenomenon tends to occur every few years, and since last summer the world has been in an El Niño phase. But now it’s over.
– El Niño has ended, declared the Meteorological Institute of Australia on Tuesday, according to the news agency Reuters.
Extreme heat
Over the past year, large parts of the world have been characterized by constantly new heat records, both on land and in water. Many records have been broken by large margins, and 2023 was it hottest year that has ever been recorded.
March was the tenth consecutive month with a record high global average temperature for the respective month, according to calculations made by EU scientists.
The main reason is man-made global warming. But El Niño has probably contributed to raising temperatures.
However, they are still at record high levels, even though El Niño has now been in luck for a while.
Tall from the University of Maine in the USA indicates that the average temperature in the world’s oceans in mid-April is the highest ever recorded at this time of year.
Important for agriculture
El Niño is part of a cycle where the opposite extreme is called La Niña. Usually, La Niña leads to slightly lower temperatures in many places.
But the cycle also affects the weather in a wide range of other ways. El Niño usually causes the weather in Asia to become dry, while in North and South America there is more rainfall. La Niña has the opposite effect.
The cycle thus has major consequences for agriculture in many parts of the world.
Some climate models suggest that La Niña will announce its arrival later this year. The Meteorological Institute in Australia still believes that this is still uncertain.
Damage to coral reefs
In Spanish, El Niño means “the little boy”, while La Niña means “the little girl”. The background is that El Niño is particularly noticeable around Christmas time on the west coast of South America. Sailors in Peru therefore gave the weather phenomenon a name inspired by the baby Jesus.
During the past year, extreme temperatures in many ocean areas have had major consequences for many species.
Monday warned the authorities in the USA that high temperatures lead to damage to coral reefs in large parts of the world. For the second time in a decade, the world is affected by “global mass bleaching” of tropical coral reefs.
If the temperatures do not drop and the bleaching subsides quickly, the corals may die. As much as 25 percent of all species in the sea level to be dependent on coral reefs.
New situation
The average temperature in the world’s oceans has been at record high levels since April last year.
So far this month, the average temperature has been even higher than in April 2023, according to the Meteorological Institute of Australia. If this situation continues, last year’s April record will not hold for more than a year.
The Australian meteorologists write that the record heat in the ocean creates a new situation that also affects the temperature patterns linked to the alternation between El Niño and La Niña. Predicting when we will have another La Niña can thus become more difficult.
If La Niña occurs later this year, it will be the fourth time in just five years. In the same period, there has only been one El Niño.
According to The Guardian Such a pattern has never before been observed.
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2024-04-16 17:44:59