Warmer seas generate more intense storms and El Nino is likely to cause hot,dry conditions in Australia.Credit:Coral Expeditions
Should an intense El Nino develop on top of the heat extra heat absorbed by the planet’s climate systems since 2016,new record temperatures could be even higher again,driving the world deeper into uncharted territory.
Scientists are still unsure of the implications,though it is clear that warmer seas generate more intense storms,and that an El Nino is likely to cause hot,dry conditions to Australia and rains to the US West Coast,which is now finally seeing some relief from years of drought.
“This is an unusual pattern. This is an extreme event at a global scale” in areas that don’t fit with merely an El Nino,Princeton University climate scientist Gabe Vecchi told the Associated Press. “That is a huge,huge signal. I think it’s going to take some level of effort to understand it.”
He noted that along with the heat patch off the South American coast[consistent with an emerging El Nino] there were marine heatwaves or ocean warming spots that don’t fit an El Nino pattern,such as those in the northern Pacific near Alaska and off the coast of Spain.
“People might dismiss these records as a few tenths of a degree,” says England,“but if you consider that the earth’s surface is 75 per cent ocean,to warm it up to that sort of record levels is very impressive.”
England calls the El Nino the world’s “heat removal service”. He doesn’t know exactly what to expect in its absence.
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