2023-24 El Nino among five strongest on record, will continue fuelling heat in 2024: WMO
El Nino has peaked as one of the five strongest on record and will continue to impact global climate in the coming months despite a weakening trend, the World Meteorological Organisation said on Tuesday. The UN agency also said above-normal temperatures are predicted over almost all land areas between March and May.
The prevailing El Nino conditions fuelled record temperatures and extreme events the world over, with 2023 being the warmest on record.
According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, the global mean temperature breached the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold for an entire year for the first time in January.
A permanent breach of the 1.5-degree Celsius limit, specified in the Paris Agreement, however, refers to long-term warming over many years.
In its latest update, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said there is about a 60 per cent chance of El Nino persisting during March-May and an 80 per cent likelihood of neutral conditions (neither El Nino nor La Nina) during April to June.
There is a chance of La Nina developing later in the year but those odds are currently uncertain, it said.
Scientists closely tracking the development in India have said La Nina conditions setting in by June-August could mean monsoon rains would be better this year than in 2023.
El Nino — a periodic warming of the ocean surface in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean — occurs every two to seven years on an average, and typically lasts nine to 12 months.
It is associated with increased
