El Niño is a crucial natural phenomenon. You can get information regarding, what El Niño effects on Earth, how it occurs, and how it affects globally and in India specifically. With it, you can go for some call to action to manage the after-effects of the phenomenon. Let us delve more into the topic of El Niño in 2024.

What is meant by El Niño and what are the

El Niño effects on earth?

El Niño is an important natural phenomenon. In it, the normal temperatures of the ocean rise especially in the Pacific Ocean parts. El Niño means ‘the child’ that is a Spanish word depicts the child. Sometimes, it also refers to the baby Christ because its currents start flowing around Christmas. Let us know more about El Niño effects on Earth 2024. 

Earth’s temperature depends on the ocean temperatures. El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has three phases or phenomena. Such as Neutral state, El Niño, El Niña. In a neutral state, the tropical Pacific Ocean brings moist surface waters towards the western Pacific that help keep it cool. La Nina also represents for cold phase. And El Niño causes the warm phase. Because high-temperature water pools from the tropical Pacific Ocean to other directions.

Each phenomenon occurs every two to seven years with different intensities as neutral to intense. Expect neutral, El Nino and La Nina phenomena affects the global climate and make changes. El Niño can cause drought in some areas and flooding in other areas. It highly impacts climate, hence agriculture, biodiversity, marine ecosystem, etc.

What are El Nino’s impacts on India?

NOAA has predicted that the Northern Hemisphere can experience strong El Niño effects after February 2024. And it has chances to be “historically strong”.

El Niño Effects on Indian Monsoon 2023:

• In India, previous El Niños have mostly caused dry monsoons.
• Precipitation in 2023 is already affected by El Niño as less rainfall during the Monsoon. 
• Extreme heat in summer causes drought affects the entire pattern and increases global warming.
• El Niño can lead to less precipitation during monsoon in India. It may cause severe drought and heat waves in India.

El Niño effect in India 2024:

There may be a spike in heat after February 2024. Many scientists have predicted scorching summers in India this year. El Niño’s effect on the Indian monsoon is not predicated because it is set in June 2024. Still, India can see severe heatwaves from February to June.

What is El Niño’s effect on Earth’s weather patterns?

El Niño leads to changes in weather patterns worldwide. As the tropical Pacific Ocean pools towards the eastern Pacific with warm water. It radiates heat into the air and causes hotter weather across the globe. It started in 2023. As a report by NOAA shows that 2023 was hotter than previous years. With it, El Niño effects on Earth will last till June 2024 as summers can see its peak this year.

El Niño effects on global temperature and precipitation patterns:

The water in the tropical Pacific Ocean gets warm than usual that leads to the increase of Air pressure in the Western Pacific. Hence, it will do the opposite in the eastern Pacific with lower air pressure. Thus, it causes an increase in rainfall over the tropical Pacific Ocean. Rainfall reduces over Indonesia, India, and northern Australia.

• So, it causes dryer and warmer areas in the northern U.S. and Canada. And Southeast and Gulf Coast U.S. have more rains that increase flooding.
• As per a report, Temperatures were above average in Australia during spring. For this reason, 2023 in Australia recorded the eighth warmest year.

High chances of Extreme weather events:

According to a report, El Nino’s events have increased in the last several decades. And since 1900, totally 30 El Niño events have been recorded. However, only a few reached their secondary peak. Still, El Niño can create the weather conditions the worst.

Normal weather patterns Disruption, leading to droughts, floods, and storms

• As drought in Africa
• Less rainfall in Australia can lead to bush-fires
• More precipitation across the North America
• Above-average rainfall in South America causes major flooding. The condition also causes thunderstorms.

How does El Niño Influence on Oceanic Conditions?

El Niño affects the marine life and ocean conditions. The temperature of the Pacific Ocean causes high heat. It can lead to poor production or distribution of fish in the ocean. The water pools from the tropical Pacific to the northern hemisphere. It affects several countries as half of the earth.

• It causes the cold water species to move towards the north.
• The phenomena affect the fish’s growth, reproduction, and survival.
• El Niño can be a reason for coral bleaching. Previous El Niño events have done the same. It has led to the extinction of two coral species in the last event.
• Temperature arising in the ocean affects the fishing industry as most consuming fish species are extinct.
• And it highly affects the coastal areas that depend on seas for their food.

What are the El Nino’s Effects on Agriculture and Food?

Southern areas face more rainfall during El Niño events. Dry monsoons or droughts occur in northern areas. This Irregular rainfall pattern causes a decrease in crop yields. As it affects agriculture and food growing. The staple crops face problems during the event. Such as Maize, Rice, and wheat. It causes many other problems related to food security in many countries. Less rainfall leads to poor production of crops, and severe drought can destroy the entire field. The crop production depends on the rain level. Because the extreme rain during monsoon can also affect on fields.

Stocks and food security problems arise:

• Major the population depends on Rabi crops during monsoons and summers. And any climate change can affect the entire production. It may lead to lower production, crop failures, and other issues.
• With it, the food security problem can arise because of the temperature and weather. Extreme heat or flood can cause the food to degrade in security.
• It will cause inflation in food prices globally. Because it will decrease the food supply all over the world.
• Many populations can face starving or unnatural deaths from it. It can also affect the water availability in many regions.

What is the El Nino’s Contribution to Climate Change?

The central Pacific Ocean’s water gets unusually warmer which affects the normal pattern of weather and climate. As it leads to less or more rain, drought conditions, or storms in many areas. Thus, it can contribute to the climate change globally. Global heating can lead to extreme events in El Niño as per a study.

greenhouse gases releases from affected regions:

El Niño events can affect the greenhouse gases such as Carbon Dioxide (CO2). It happens due to forest burning or Deforestation. With it, Methane and Nitrous Oxide will also be affected due to El Niño events.

Increase in global warming effects:

El Niño affects the world’s weather by changing the pressure systems, winds, and precipitation. The excess heat energy is released from warm ocean waters. It affects the atmosphere by mixing into it and increasing the global temperature. El Niño causes many changing effects on the weather patterns. It will lead to damage to agriculture, health, energy, fish industries, and air quality. With it, the air quality will be affected by El Nino’s effect. Because it increases the wildfires causes air pollution. 

Impacts on the economy:

El Niño effects cause extreme weather conditions such as floods, droughts, storms, and heat waves. These impact food productions, energy formation, normal lives, and various industries. The entire economy can face problems due to disruptions in supply chains.

Migration or population displacement:

Locals can try to move from their places to somewhere with fewer effects. As there, they can avail basic facilities easily. Because it will help in controlling the mortality rates due to El Niño effects on Earth.

How these impacts can weaken to revive normal functions?

Governmental bodies with other key partners can take action on the ground level to ease the effects of El Niño. They can implement some actions to weaken the climate effects. For instance, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) has mentioned objectives to mitigate the phenomena’ impacts. Such as:

Actions:

• Covering River Banks with advanced and power technologies to help in flood
• Protecting fishers and their boats from storms and floods.
• Seeds supplied in flood-affected areas. So, farmers can grow their crops after the receding of water
• Providing or delivering essentials for living as food, medicines, and freshwater

Conclusion

Recently El Niño phenomenon started in 2023 and will stay till 2024. Already, 2023 was declared as the warmest year in history. Now, El Niño phenomena will continue until June 2024 as per predictions. It means, it may not affect the 2024 monsoon but the summers might spike up. Climate and weather change highly impact the ecosystem, agriculture, food security, marine biodiversity etc. So, El Niño is a natural phenomenon that cannot be stopped or changed. But its impacts can be mitigated with some actions. These impacts can help with taking essential steps to help conditions.

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