The UN announced Friday that the La Nina weather phenomenon could continue until 2023. Clare Nullis, a spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), stated that the current episode has been ongoing since September 2020.
The Australian Government's Bureau of Meteorology declared "La Nina" in November 2021. We thought it was over in June. This announcement signaled the beginning of dramatic months.
What is La Nina, you ask? It is El Nino's opposite. This causes the temperature to rise at the surface of tropical Pacific Ocean water and inversion of trade winds. It is often observed around Christmas. It has a global impact on climate. La Nina causes the temperature to drop at the surface. This causes climate change. La Nina is a phenomenon that occurs between 1 and 2 years after each 5 year average. She returned twice in succession.
Although La Nina's effects are less severe than El Nino's, they still have serious consequences: typhoons and cyclones, increased rain, droughts... According to Petteri Taalas (Secretary General of WMO), "global warming amplifies natural phenomena such La Nina which results in particularly in more intense heat, drought, and the associated risk for forest fires - along with record rainfalls and flooding. This has been tragically demonstrated in nearly every region of the globe over the last few months.
Australia, for example, experienced more than average rainfall which led to flooding and landslides. Tropical cyclones can be added to the rains in Asia. This is what East Timor and Indonesia experienced in April 2021. Contrarily, droughts are common in eastern Africa, southern Africa, and eastern South America. Particularly in the Horn of Africa where 18 million people are at risk of starvation,
How about Europe? La Nina is responsible for the torrential rains and droughts that occurred in Europe in the summer 2021.
The WMO estimates that there is a 70% chance the current episode will last through August. Some medium-term forecasts indicate "that it will continue until 2023". This would be only the third consecutive winter that this phenomenon has been observed since 1950.
Clare Nullis stated that the most recent seasonal forecasts "indicate that there is a concrete chance that the rainy seasons from October to December won't occur" in Somalia, parts of Kenya, and Ethiopia. The spokesperson stated that it is not just La Nina. It's also the double whammy climate change and La Nina.
"If these forecasts become reality, the humanitarian situation is likely to get even worse," she said, noting that the UN meteorological agency was working with humanitarian organizations in order to inform their actions on the ground.
