“Gasoline on the fire”. El Nino has already started

The meteorological phenomenon El Niño has arrived, NOAA, the American scientific agency for oceans and atmosphere, announced this Thursday. It is a “deadly siren to be feared”. Scientists expect it to intensify until the end of the year, potentially reaching historic intensity.

There was one that El Niño would arrive this summer. And it really happened, says NOAA: here’s the cyclical weather phenomenon this time.

The is a natural climate phenomenon that warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, causing changes in winds, precipitation patterns and unstable weather in several regions of the world.

Scientists fear it will come on a planet that is already warming due to the burning of fossil fuels while intensifying extreme weather phenomena.

In their most recent report, NOAA scientists stated that “El Niño conditions have developed over the last month”, as demonstrated by above-average sea surface temperatures in the Pacific.

“There is 63% probability of a very strong El Niño between November and January, which would be among the largest El Niño events in historical record since 1950”, reads the bulletin.

Each El Niño is differentbut the most intense episodes tend to follow familiar patterns. Among them are droughts in parts of the AmazonIndonesia and Australia, monsoon disturbances in India and changes in the distribution of precipitation throughout the tropical region.

The phenomenon generally occurs every two to seven years e lasts about nine to 12 months. Or The Child tends to peak at the end of the yearbut the heat accumulated in the oceans is released more slowly into the atmosphere, raising global temperatures the following year.

“A deadly siren”

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Wednesday that global meteorologists were increasingly confident that a warming weather pattern associated with a Very strong El Niño.

“At this stage, the probabilities clearly point to a moderate to strong event, or probably a strong to record breaking event,” the service director, Carlo Buontempo.

In reaction to NOAA’s prediction, Mohamed Adowdirector of the Nairobi-based climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, said that for millions of people around the world, “this is not just another weather forecast,” but a “deadly siren to fear”.

“It means failed rains, dying cropsfood prices rising and families pushed to the limit again.”

Earlier this month, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterrescalled on the world to treat the likely approaching intense weather phenomenon “as the urgent climate warning that it is”.

“El Niño conditions they will pour gasoline on the fire of a warming world,” said Guterres. “The only effective response is climate action to match the crisis: end dependence on fossil fuels, accelerate the transition to renewable energy, protect the most vulnerable and ensure early warning systems for everyone.”