AN intensifying El Nino pattern set an all-time temperature high in a key Pacific zone in September and could help make this year the hottest globally on record, the director of the EU’s climate monitor said Monday. Global forecasters have been warning for months that this El Nino would likely become the strongest ever observed and the latest record has tumbled even before the episode’s expected peak later this year.
The warming phase of a natural climate cycle, El Nino temporarily raises sea temperatures in the tropical Pacific, triggering changes in weather that can increase the risk of drought and flooding, and exacerbate man-made global warming.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service said sea surface temperatures in a tell-tale El Nino monitoring region of the Pacific, known as Nino3.4, had reached an “all-time high” of 29.70C last month. This exceeded the peak temperatures of previously strong El Nino events of 1982/1983, 1997/1998 and 2015/2016, the EU monitor said. This year’s El Nino, which emerged in June, is “very exceptional” but it is too early to say whether it is the strongest ever observed, Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo told AFP.
As climate change raises ocean temperatures, it can make recent El Nino events appear stronger than past ones, complicating historical comparisons. Copernicus said it had adopted a new index, which accounts for the warming of tropical oceans, that suggested the current event is not yet stronger than past ones.
AFP
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