It appears that the El Niño climate phenomenon has begun. This is reported by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). El Niño is expected to have a wide range of impacts, ranging from heavy rains or tropical storms in one place to severe drought in another.
El Niño is an extreme warming of the Pacific Ocean. Scientists take into account that this will be accompanied by new temperature records, partly because climate change could enhance the impact of El Niño.
We made this video a few weeks ago about this natural phenomenon.
Many of the warmest years on record worldwide have occurred during El Niño. The last strong El Niño event was in 2016, making it the hottest year on record. KNMI takes into account that 2024 will become warmer due to El Niño, also called super El Niño.
Australia has already announced that it expects a much lower harvest due to this natural phenomenon, and Japan believes that the extremely warm spring is actually due to El Niño. A major drought is expected in Indonesia and the Philippines, which will lead to food problems. The risk of forest fires is also high in a number of countries. Other countries will actually have to deal with a lot more rain. In Europe, the direct consequences of this natural phenomenon appear to be less than expected so far.
