La Nina Expected Later This Year, Impacting Global Weather

May 24, 2024

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) recently said that the upcoming monsoon season in India would have above-normal rainfall. They said this was because “favourable” La Nina conditions were expected by August and September. The IMD also said that El Niño conditions have been getting weaker since the beginning of the year.

Understanding El Niño and La Nina

El Niño and La Nina are important climate events that happen as part of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle and change the way the weather works around the world. These events happen because the ocean and the climate are interacting in complicated ways. The main thing that these interactions affect is the temperature of the water in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. When El Niño happens, the trade winds weaken, which makes the water warmer on the top all across the equatorial Pacific. La Nina, on the other hand, has stronger trade winds and cooler ocean temperatures because more cold, nutrient-rich water rises to the surface.

Global Impact of ENSO

The ENSO cycle changes the weather all over the world in many ways:

Precipitation: Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific tend to be dry during El Niño, while the Southern United States and parts of South America tend to be wetter. La Nina, on the other hand, tends to make things dry in parts of South America and the Southern United States and bring more rain to Southeast Asia and Australia.
Temperature: El Niño can cause parts of North America and Western Europe to be cooler and parts of Western South America to be warmer. While La Nina is happening, temperatures tend to drop in the eastern Pacific and rise in some parts of North America.
Tropical Cyclones: When La Nina conditions exist, there are more hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, but when El Niño conditions exist, there are fewer hurricanes.

Impact on India and Surrounding Regions

of the country except for the east and northeast, which may get less rain than usual. When La Nina happens, it rains more often or harder, which makes flooding, mudslides, and landslides more likely. On the other hand, years with El Niño can make it rain less during the rainy season, which could cause drought-like conditions.

Climate Change and ENSO

According to new research, climate change may be changing the ENSO cycle, which could lead to more frequent and stronger El Niño events. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says that climate change will likely change how strong and how often weather and climate events like El Niño and La Nina happen. To sum up, the ENSO cycle is an important part of global climate dynamics because it affects weather trends all over the world. La Nina is expected to start in late 2023, which could cause big changes in weather patterns in many places around the world. These changes could have an effect on farming, water supplies, and disaster management plans.

What is La Nina conditions?

La Niña is the opposite of El Niño. It is marked by cooler-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean close to the equator. This event changes weather patterns around the world, generally making it rain more in Southeast Asia, Australia, and South America and dry out in the southwestern U.S. La Niña events happen about every 3 to 5 years on average. They can last for 9 to 12 months and are linked to storms in the Atlantic that are stronger than usual and colder winters in the northwest U.S. It also tends to strengthen the jet stream in the Pacific, which changes the paths of storms across North America.

« Previous Post Next Post »