The cooling in the Pacific Ocean has gone on for three years. Its end is usually good news for the U.S. and other parts of the world, including drought-stricken northeast Africa, scientists said.
A house sits in Rock Creek in June 2022 after floodwaters washed away a road and a bridge in Red Lodge, Mont.
The globe is now in what's considered a"neutral" condition and probably trending to an El Nino in late summer or fall, said climate scientist Michelle L'Heureux, head of NOAA's El Nino/La Nina forecast office."It's over," said research scientist Azhar Ehsan, who heads Columbia University's El Nino/La Nina forecasting."Mother Nature thought to get rid of this one because it's enough.
When there's a La Nina, there are more storms in the Atlantic during hurricane season because it removes conditions that suppress storm formation. Neutral or El Nino conditions make it harder for storms to get going, but not impossible, scientists said. La Nina tends to make Western Africa wet, but Eastern Africa, around Somalia, dry. The opposite happens in El Nino with drought-struck Somalia likely to get steady"short rains," Ehsan said. La Nina has wetter conditions for Indonesia, parts of Australia and the Amazon, but those areas are drier in El Nino, according to NOAA.
"I'm sick of this La Nina," Ehsan said. L'Heureux agreed, saying she's ready to talk about something else. Think of a La Nina or El Nino as something that pushes the weather system from the Pacific with ripple effects worldwide, L'Heureux said. When there are neutral conditions like now, there's less push from the Pacific. That means other climatic factors, including the long-term warming trend, have more influence in day-to-day weather, she said.
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