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La Niña climate cycle could last into 2023: UN

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Agence France-Press

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Vehicles are trapped by a flood in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas state, Mexico, on June 8, 2022. Carlos Lopez, EPA-EFE/file " src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/news/06/10/vehicles-trapped-flood-epa.jpg"/><figcaption>Vehicles are trapped by a flood in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas state, Mexico, on June 8, 2022. <em>Carlos Lopez, EPA-EFE/file</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>The weather phenomenon La Niña, which has affected global temperatures and worsened drought and flooding, will likely continue for months, and possibly even into 2023, the UN warned Friday.</p><p>La Niña refers to the large-scale cooling of surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, occurring every two to seven years.</p><p>The UN&#x27;s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said there was a 70 percent chance that the protracted La Nina event -- which has held the globe in its clutches almost uninterrupted since September 2020 -- will continue until at least August.</p><p>&quot;Some long-lead predictions even suggest that it might persist into 2023,&quot; it said in a statement.</p><p>If it does, this would be only the third so-called triple-dip La Niña -- meaning the phenomenon is present during three consecutive northern hemisphere winters -- on record since 1950, WMO said.</p><p>The effect has widespread impacts on weather around the world -- typically the opposite impacts to the El Nino phenomenon, which has a warming influence on global temperatures.</p><p>The devastating drought ravaging the Horn of Africa and the drought in southern South America &quot;bear the hallmarks of La Nina&quot;, WMO said.</p><p>It also said the above average rainfall in Southeast Asia and Australia could be linked to the phenomenon, as could the predictions for an above average Atlantic hurricane season.</p><p>However, it stressed the impacts of naturally occurring climate events like La Nina were intensifying due to a warming planet.</p><p>&quot;Human-induced climate change amplifies the impacts of naturally-occurring events like La Nina and is increasingly influencing our weather patterns,&quot; WMO chief Petteri Taalas said in a statement.</p><p>He pointed in particular to &quot;more intense heat and drought and the associated risk of wildfires -- as well as record-breaking deluges of rainfall and flooding&quot;.<br/> </p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2072686" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

The weather phenomenon La Niña, which has affected global temperatures and worsened drought and flooding, will likely continue for months, and possibly even into 2023, the UN warned Friday.