Climate Phenomenon: What is El Niño?

It's heating up A natural climate anomaly, El Niño is back after seven years “of absence”. With ongoing global warming, its consequences on biodiversity and populations could be increased tenfold Extreme weather phenomena: What is El Niño? — 20 Minutes

It was announced since May by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The climatic phenomenon El Niño is already occurring. to work in Pacific waters, and is expected to intensify by the end of the year.

Why El Niño is under scrutiny? to the magnifying glass?

Disappeared from radar since 2016, the year during which violent floods ravaged the area. Peru in particular, El Niño is the consequence of an atmospheric disturbance in the Pacific Ocean, between the Peruvian coasts and Oceania. It appears both at seven years in response to the accumulation of an overflow of heat in the waters of the tropics, and it lasts from seven to three twelve months.

What are the consequences of this climatic phenomenon?

When El Niño sets in, the temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean rises 0.8°C above normal, or even up to more than 2°C when it is a Super El Niño like in 2016, and causes a rise in the global temperature of the planet for about a year. Result: the fish, usually present in the Pacific zone such as anchovies, flee the heat; heavy rainfall hits the side is; and major droughts are affecting the countries side by side. west.

With global warming, is El Niño more dangerous?

The warming of the waters of the Pacific by El Niño conjugated; to the overall rise in the thermometer, due to the increase in gases at the temperature. greenhouse effect generated by human activities, in fact aggravates the effects of climate change. Even if this does not apply to all regions of the globe. However, the effects of El Niño do not only affect the Pacific basin, and can extend to the Pacific basin. Africa and to India, among others. This is known as “the domino effect”. Conversely, climate change can aggravate the consequences of this climatic phenomenon in the areas that are usually the most affected.

To better understand the impact to come from El Niño, find, in the video at the top of this article, the explanations of the climatologist and researcher at the Research Institute for Development (IRD), Françoise Vimeux.