Latin America and the Caribbean should brace for the arrival of La Niña, the weather pattern fueling a highly active Atlantic hurricane season and greater climate variability across the region, experts said Tuesday.
The World Meteorological Organization hosted a webinar on the threat of La Niña as Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season and the first storm on record to reach maximum Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, barrels through the eastern Caribbean.
La Niña, a weather pattern that begins with cooler-than-normal ocean temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, is associated with flooding and drought, as well as an increase in the frequency of hurricanes in the Caribbean.
La Niña threatens return of historic droughts in South America
“We are now transitioning to a La Niña phenomenon again,” said Jose Luis Stella. He warned that La Niña threatens to bring “rapid variability” to an already extreme climate. In addition, experts warned on Tuesday that La Niña could repeat the historic droughts in South America from 2020 to 2023.
Stella explained that there have been years of prolonged La Niña, causing historic droughts and a rapid transition to El Niño. Additionally, in Latin America, the warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean affects the jet stream winds over the Pacific. Therefore, both La Niña and El Niño have costly impacts on regional economies, damaging crops such as wheat, rice and corn.
Both patterns last 9 to 12 months and occur every 2 to 7 years, without regularity.
Source: Juana Casas and Stéphanie Hamel | Notícias Agrícolas
