Get
ready for a rare 'triple-dip' La Niña
The Verge 20220831
We’re about
to see the first “triple-dip” La Niña of the
century, spanning three consecutive Northern hemisphere winters, the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) predicts. The organization issued a forecast
today warning of the unusual turn of events: the current
La Niña, a weather pattern that can drive severe weather, will likely persist over
the next six months into 2023.
“It is exceptional to have three consecutive years”
“It is exceptional
to have three consecutive years with a la Niña
event,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a press
release. The phenomenon is expected to continue
fueling bad weather across far-flung corners of the world.
La Niña typically shows
up every two to seven years, usually lasting a year
or less. It unfurls across the Pacific Ocean, but its effects can be felt
across the globe. Along with El Niño, it’s one of the extreme phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO),
a recurring climate pattern.
During a
La Niña, unusually strong trade winds blow
warm surface water from the Americas toward Asia.
Then from the bottom of the sea, more cool water rises
— leading to a cooling effect across the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
The consequences of that phenomenon vary from region to region and are never quite the same each year, but La Niña usually has the opposite effects of an El Niño event.
Australia tends
to get more rain, for instance, while Eastern
Africa is usually dryer than normal.
This particular
La Niña event started in September 2020. Since
then, its “hallmark” has been seen in abnormal weather events around the world,
according to Taalas. That includes the longest drought in four decades to hit the
Horn of Africa. Facing five
bone-dry rainy seasons in a row, more than 50 million people in seven
countries stretching across Eastern Africa — from Eritrea down to Kenya and
Somalia — are expected to experience food insecurity this year, according to a United
Nations-backed report.
The latest La Niña forecast confirms that the ongoing drought will continue to worsen,
Taalas said.
In Australia,
on the other hand, La Niña fed record rainfall. Last week, rain gauges in Sydney
recorded over two meters (6.56 feet) of rain since the start of this year. It’s
the first
time the city has hit that mark this early in the year since record keeping
began 164 years ago. Severe
flooding has plagued parts of New South Wales, where Sydney is the state capital,
throughout the year.
Climate change
is also at
play when it comes to more extreme weather events — whether that’s drought,
flood, or La Niña. Research points to extreme La Niña and El Niño events becoming
twice
as frequent — to about once
every decade — by the end of the century as global temperatures rise.
The WMO forecast
a 70 percent chance of this La Niña sticking around through September to November
of this year. There’s a 55 percent chance
of it persisting from December 2022 to February of next
year.
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