2023-08-20 16:30:12
The return of the El Niño weather phenomenon was confirmed in July 2023. Meanwhile, the planet has been suffering the consequences of climate change for most of this year, with fires, heatwaves, and droughts seen across the globe. Faced with this double threat of the warming band of ocean water caused by El Niño, and a warming globe caused by human emissions, should we expect the worst?
El Niño, a climatic anomaly that increases the temperature of the Pacific Ocean, generally recurs every two to seven years. Episodes usually last nine to twelve months. According to the World Meteorological Organization, the last El Niño episode was observed in 2015-16, so seven years ago.
In 2018-2019, a weak El Niño gave way to a particularly long, nearly three-year episode of La Niña, its “sister” event which causes the opposite effects, including cooling ocean surface temperatures. Yet the planet experienced record temperatures during these years.
So what can we expect from a new El Niño? Will it accelerate global warming? Does global warming have an impact on the strength of this climatic anomaly?
SOURCES :
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.
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