Climate models show that after three years of the La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific, which typically cools global temperatures, the world is set to welcome El Nino, a warmer weather pattern, later this year.
The Earth's average temperature is expected to hit a record high in 2023 due to El Nino. Photo: Reuters
During El Nino, winds blow westward along the equator and warm water is pushed eastward, creating warmer ocean surface temperatures.
"El Nino is often associated with record high global temperatures. It is not yet clear whether this will happen in 2023 or 2024, but I think it is almost certain to happen," said Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU's Copernicus Climate Service.
Climate models show El Nino returning in late northern summer and the potential for a strong El Nino to develop later this year, Buontempo said.
The world's hottest year on record so far was 2016, which coincided with a strong El Nino, although climate change has driven up extreme temperatures even in years without the phenomenon.
The past eight years have been the world's warmest on record, reflecting a long-term warming trend due to greenhouse gas emissions.
El Nino-induced heat could exacerbate the impacts of climate change already experienced by countries, including severe heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, said Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer at Imperial College London's Grantham Institute.
“If El Nino develops, it is very likely that 2023 will be even hotter than 2016,” Mr. Otto predicted.
Europe experienced its hottest summer on record in 2022, while heavy rains fueled by climate change caused catastrophic flooding in Pakistan and this past February, accompanied by record low sea levels in Antarctica.
Despite most of the world's major emitters pledging to cut their net emissions to zero, global CO2 emissions continued to rise last year.
Trung Kien (according to Reuters)
Source
Comment (0)