Jun 21, 2023: The El Niño is back. What is El Niño and how does it happen? What are the impacts of El Niño? Keep reading to know more!
El Niño has returned to the Pacific Ocean, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US federal government stated on June 8th, seven years after it last occurred. Although predicted, India has serious concerns about this NOAA confirmation.
What is El Niño?
Fishermen off the coast of Peru first noticed El Nio when they noticed unusually warm water. Native Peruvians may have given the phenomenon a different name, but Spanish immigrants gave it the English name El Nio, which translates as "the little boy" in English. El Then it was referred to as the Christ Child and was chosen as the name because it frequently occurred around Christmas. El Nino soon expanded beyond simply the warming of coastal surface waters to include irregular and severe climate fluctuations.
In simple terms -
El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon that happens from time to time. It makes the ocean water in the Pacific Ocean warmer than usual, which can affect weather patterns around the world. During El Niño, some places may get more rain than usual, while others may experience drought. It can also cause changes in temperature and impact marine life. Basically, El Niño is when the ocean gets warmer and it can make the weather go unstable.
How does it happen?
El Niño happens when something changes in the Pacific Ocean. Normally, the trade winds blow from east to west across the ocean, pushing warm water towards the western side. But sometimes, these winds weaken, and the warm water moves towards the eastern side of the ocean. This makes the water in the central and eastern tropical Pacific warmer than usual, and that's when El Niño occurs. It's like a shift in the ocean's temperature that can affect the weather all around the world.
It's important to note that the specific impacts of El Niño can vary in intensity and duration from event to event, and they can also be influenced by other climate factors and regional circumstances. Monitoring and understanding El Niño events is crucial for preparedness, adaptation, and managing the potential impacts on various sectors.
El Niño has historically been linked to extreme heat waves, floods, and droughts around the world.
The eight hottest years on record occurred in the past eight years, which is a reflection of the longer-term warming trend caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
EL Niño 2023 prediction -
Since 2000, there have been five events; hence, they typically occur every four to five years as of 2023. El Niño was expected to start this year by August, which would have matched with the second half of the June-September southwest monsoon season in India.
But it turned out differently than we had expected. In contrast to what the weather forecasts had anticipated, sea surface temperatures around the equatorial Pacific Ocean, particularly along the multiple Niño zones, have been showing signs of warming significantly more quickly.
Between March and June of this year, the Niño 3.4 index value—a crucial sign confirming an occurrence of El Niño—rose from minus 0.2 degrees Celsius to 0.8 degrees Celsius. While this index's limit point is 0.5 degrees Celsius.
Meteorologists commented that It was unusual for warming to occur at such rapid rates.
There have been 18 years of drought in the Indian context over the past 100 years. Of these, El Nio was linked to 13 of those years. As a result, it appears that an El Nio event and a year with little rainfall in India are related.