El Ni\u00f1o effect<\/a> isn\u2019t new, but experts have been warning that this year\u2019s looks like it\u2019ll be particularly intense \u2013 adding fuel to the fire already set in motion by the climate crisis.<\/p>\n\u201cEl Ni\u00f1o is being supersized before our eyes. The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up,\u201d said Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A strong El Ni\u00f1o event can significantly shift rainfall and temperature patterns across many parts of the world.<\/p>\n
This one is expected to be particularly strong and to last until February 2027, the WMO has said.<\/p>\n
The El Ni\u00f1o phenomenon itself is not directly caused by climate change, but the effects of the El Ni\u00f1o can worsen the impacts of the climate crisis around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has the potential to deliver a massive blow to communities and economies across the world,\u201d said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are already seeing disruption and devastation from droughts and floods and we expect these impacts to increase as El Ni\u00f1o intensifies,\u201d Saulo said.\n<\/p>\n
What it means<\/p>\n
The impacts of\u00a0El Ni\u00f1o will play out in different ways and to different extents around the world.<\/p>\n
In eastern and southern Africa, more than 162 million children are exposed to the impacts of this El Ni\u00f1o, like heat, droughts and flooding, according to Unicef.<\/p>\n
The children\u2019s charity said yesterday that children\u2019s nutrition, health, education and access to safe water and sanitation are all at risk as a result.<\/p>\n
In Ethiopia, for example, tens of thousands of children are likely to be affected in areas that are already suffering from severe food insecurity and vulnerability.<\/p>\n
For Ireland, the exact impacts are more difficult to predict and will likely be less than in some other parts of the world, but it could contribute<\/a> to colder winter temperatures here and elsewhere in northeast Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE WEATHER PHENOMENON that\u2019s warming up the Pacific Ocean is going to make climate change-driven extreme weather events…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[269],"tags":[3898,442,20269,18,36750,440,1954,19,17,32978,133,282954,78173],"class_list":["post-670080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-crisis","tag-eire","tag-el-nino","tag-environment","tag-extreme-weather","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pacific-ocean","tag-science","tag-troubled-waters","tag-world-meteorological-organisation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117206039058023977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}