In many parts of the world, the notorious meteorological phenomenon El Niño has reappeared and it is almost certain that it will affect the global climate in the second half of this year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced in Geneva.
The climate created by El Niño has reappeared in the tropical part of the Pacific for the first time in several years, and this could raise global temperatures and change regional weather and climate patterns, dpa reports.
The WMO assumes with 90 percent certainty that this phenomenon will dominate the second half of the year, but the extent of that impact cannot yet be predicted.
The last time strong effects of El Niño were felt in 2015/2016, and scientists do not agree whether this phenomenon affected the climate in the 2018/2019 season as well.
"The onset of El Niño greatly increases the likelihood that temperature records will be broken again," said WMO Director Peteri Talas.
He called on governments to take preventive measures in order to save human lives in extreme weather conditions.
El Niño is not associated with human-induced climate change, but it can greatly intensify its effect because it further warms the atmosphere.
It is a phenomenon that appears every few years, along with the warming of the Pacific Ocean and the weak trade winds that blow from subtropical areas towards the Equator.
The effects are mainly felt by Southeast Asia, Australia, Africa and Central America, while in Europe they are mostly limited. The counterbalance to El Niño is the climate phenomenon La Niña, which has mainly characterized the past three years.
El Niño is a global atmospheric-oceanic phenomenon that occurs due to changes in wind direction and water temperature in the tropical part of the Pacific Ocean. The term "El Niño" itself means "little boy" in Spanish and refers to the baby Jesus, because the effects of El Niño are most felt around Christmas.
El Niño brings wet and rainy weather, and floods in otherwise dry areas of South America, and a dry period in Indonesia. During the period of El Niño, the wind currents change, which then blows from the west to the east, and warmer waters accumulate towards the eastern parts of the Pacific Ocean, the ocean level rises and the thickness of the layer of nutrients in it decreases.
The result of El Niño is considered to be unusually heavy summer rain along the coasts of Ecuador and northern Peru, and drought in southern Peru, northeastern Brazil, Australia and the Sahel region, and unusual weather phenomena along the coasts of North America, with several tornadoes.
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