El Nino is back, creating havoc
2002-06-12 09:11
Miami - Five years after lashing out at about half the planet, El Nino is back, striking Latin America with killer rains and menacing a large part of the world with threats of drought, floods and devastation.
Rising surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean -
one degree centigrade above average by late May - punishing rains in Central America, Colombia and Chile, as well as drought in Indonesia, clearly signal the return of El Nino, says the US National Oceanographic and Atmosphere Administration
(NOAA).
"The overall trend ... are characteristics of El Nino," notes
NOAA weather forecaster Vernon Kousky, predicting the phenomenon
would continue until year's end.
Meteorologists in Chile also blame El Nino for the violent
rainstorms that drenched the South American country earlier this
month. The storms were the worst experienced by Chile in eight
decades, leaving 13 people dead, damaging 10 000 buildings and forcing 65 000 to flee their homes.
Killer floods
Similar weather killed 16 people in Colombia, with 13 more
reported missing.
In Honduras, torrential rains in recent days killed at least
nine people, while in Nicaragua, thousands of people fled their
homes.
But El Nino's 2002 appearance on the world's radar screens should be considerably less violent than in 1997-98 - when it was dubbed the most devastating storm of the 20th century.
Five years ago, the weather phenomenon was blamed for the deaths of 22 000 people and damage in excess of $32 billion.
NOAA's estimation that El Nino would remain weak-to-moderate this year notwithstanding, the front could again cause devastating fires in northern Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brazil, while unleashing intense rains on the west coast of South and Central America.
Every two to seven years
"Since El Nino occurs every two to seven years, we're not
surprised," Jim Laver of NOAA said earlier this year.
El Nino and its opposite, La Nina, which causes a cooling of
ocean temperatures, are known to have occurred periodically for
hundreds of years, usually lasting 12 to 18 months.
The warming of ocean temperatures caused by El Nino causes
evaporation, which in turn affects the wind systems, thereby
causing significant changes in the world's climate.
The phenomenon was baptised El Nino - Spanish for "the child" - by South American fishermen who noticed an unusual warming of the waters around Christmas time, and is thought to have been named in reference to the child Jesus. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA