By Isabelle Gerretsen25th May 2023
Scientists are predicting that 2023 may see the start of a strong El Niño climate pattern. What effect might that have on our lives?
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Over the coming months, a vast body of warm water will slosh slowly across the tropical Pacific Ocean in the direction of South America. As it does so, it will trigger the start of a climate phenomenon that will bring dramatic shifts in weather patterns around the world.
Climate scientists are now warning there is now a 90% chance of an El Niño weather pattern taking hold through the end of this year and the first months of 2024. And they are warning it could be a strong one.
If that turns out to be the case, then the impacts could be significant. Scientists have already warned that with rising emissions and a strong El Niño there is a 66% chance the world will break through a key 1.5C global warming limit at least one year between now and 2027. But it could also bring damaging extreme weather such as heavy rainfall and flooding to communities in the US and elsewhere this winter.
"We're projecting an above 90% probability that there will be El Niño conditions through the winter," says David DeWitt, director of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. "There's an 80% probability that we're going to be in El Niño in July."
The effects of this could also reverberate for some time to come – a recent study by researchers at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, estimates that an El Niño starting in 2023 could cost the global economy as much as $3.4tn (£2.7tn) over the following five years. And they say that following two previous very strong El Niño events in 1982-83 and 1997-98, the US gross domestic product was 3% lower half a decade later than it otherwise would have been. If an event of a similar magnitude was to happen today, it could cost the US economy $699bn (£565bn), they calculated.
El Nino: How does it affect global weather?
It is worth noting that coastal tropical countries such as Peru and Indonesia, however, suffered a 10% drop in GDP following the same El Niño events, the researchers say. They project that global economic losses will amount to $84 trillion (£68 trillion) this century as climate change increases the frequency and strength of El Niño events.
"El Niño is not simply a shock from which an economy immediately recovers. Our study shows that economic productivity in the wake of El Niño is depressed for a much longer time than simply the year after the event," says Justin Mankin, co-author of the study and assistant professor of geography at Dartmouth College.
"When we talk about an El Niño here in the United States, it means that the types of impacts that we'll see, floods and landslides, aren't typically insured against by most households and businesses," says Mankin. In California, for example, 98% of homeowners don't have flood insurance.
Other economic impacts in the US could include infrastructure damage from flooding, which would lead to supply chain disruption, and poor harvests caused by floods or drought, says Mankin.
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But should people in the US be bracing themselves for a particularly miserable winter this year if there is an arrival of El Niño? Not necessarily. While El Niño can bring intense periods of extreme weather to North America, it doesn't always do so.
During El Niño, winds that usually push warmer water in the Pacific Ocean towards its west side weaken, allowing the warmer water to drift back towards the east and spread out over a larger area of the ocean. This leads to more moisture-rich air above the warmer ocean that alters the circulation of air in the atmosphere around the world. In North America, this typically causes Canada and the northern US to have a warmer, drier winter than normal while the southern states and Gulf coast tend to get wetter conditions, says DeWitt.
What are El Niño and La Niña?
El Niño and La Niña are naturally occurring phenomena that disrupt weather patterns worldwide. During El Niño the ocean surface temperatures of the Pacific Ocean are higher than normal. During La Niña, its cooler counterpart, ocean temperatures are lower than normal
"El Niño tends to enhance the probability of above normal precipitation for the southern third of the US," says DeWitt. El Niño also typically reduces the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, but can lead tomore hurricanes to the Pacific coast of the US. But all these effects largely depend on the strength of the El Niño that is driving them.
Southern states in the US are the most likely to experience severe impacts, including heavy rainfall and potential flash flooding, DeWitt warns. This would come after several years ofdrought following three consecutive La Niña seasons.
"Frequently what happens [during El Niño] is that when the rain comes, it comes very fast. That can causemudslides in Californiaand in other places where there have been wildfires, which can be quite devastating," says DeWitt. This is because scorched earth is able to retain less water, which can lead to dangerous runoff. The strongEl Niño events of 1997-98and 2015-16, for example, brought flooding andmudslides to California. The 1997-98 event was also associated with other unusual extreme events elsewhere in the country, such as severe ice storms in New England and deadly tornadoes in Florida.
An El Niño event in 1998 led to severe flooding in California (Credit: John Mabanglo / Getty Images)
But the changes in weather patterns brought by El Niño also brings other problems. Infectious diseases can become more prevalent in areas where conditions favour the insects and other pests that spread them. One study of the 2015-2016 El Niño event found that disease outbreaks became between 2.5%-28% more intense. There were increases in cases of West Nile virus, spread by mosquitoes, in California, while New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Texas also saw increase outbreaks of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which is mainly spread by rodents. There were even increases in the number of human cases of plague – if still only a handful of cases – in the western and southwestern states of the US.
During El Niño a lot of heat and moisture is transported from the tropics towards the poles. "When you increase the moisture at higher latitudes, it traps more thermal infrared radiation which leads to warming. This is what we call the greenhouse effect," says DeWitt.
Even a temporary breach of the 1.5C threshold due to rising emissions and this year's El Niño, as predicted by the World Meteorological Organization, could lead to widespread human suffering worldwide. According to a recent study by the University of Exeter in the UK, limiting long-term global warming to 1.5C could save billions of people from exposure to dangerous heat (average temperature of 29C or higher).
Current policies are projected to lead to 2.7C of warming globally by the end of the century, which could leave two billion people exposed to dangerous levels of heat worldwide, the authors say. Limiting warming to 1.5C would mean five times fewer people live in dangerous heat and would help prevent climate-related migration and detrimental health outcomes, including pregnancy loss and impaired brain function, says Tim Lenton, co-author of the study and director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter.
There are concerns that as carbon emissions continue to rise, future El Niño events might tip global temperatures above the 1.5C threshold more and more often.
"Every 0.1C really matters," says Lenton. "Every 0.1C of warming we can avoid, by our calculation, is saving 140 million people from exposure to unprecedented heat and the harms that could come with it."
"It's saving hundreds of millions of people from harm and that should be a huge incentive to work harder to get to zero emissions."
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FAQs
How much does El Niño cost? ›
The effects of this could also reverberate for some time to come – a recent study by researchers at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, estimates that an El Niño starting in 2023 could cost the global economy as much as $3.4tn (£2.7tn) over the following five years.
How long will El Niño last? ›El Niñ o añd La Niñ a episodes typically occur every 3-5 years. How long do El Niño and La Niña typically last? El Niñ o typically lasts 9-12 moñths while La Niñ a typically lasts 1-3 years.
What is the cause of the El Niño? ›El Niño occurs when warm water builds up along the equator in the eastern Pacific. The warm ocean surface warms the atmosphere, which allows moisture-rich air to rise and develop into rainstorms.
Why is El Niño becoming more frequent? ›Some scientists believe they may be becoming more intense and/or more frequent as a result of climate change, although exactly how El Niño interacts with climate change is not 100 percent clear. Climate change is likely to affect the impacts related to El Niño and La Niña, in terms of extreme weather events.
Is El Niño a problem? ›El Niño can affect our weather significantly. The warmer waters cause the Pacific jet stream to move south of its neutral position. With this shift, areas in the northern U.S. and Canada are dryer and warmer than usual.
Why is El Niño a problem? ›El Niño has an impact on ocean temperatures, the speed and strength of ocean currents, the health of coastal fisheries, and local weather from Australia to South America and beyond. El Niño events occur irregularly at two- to seven-year intervals.
What will El Niño do in 2023? ›Starting in the May to July 2023 period, the probability of El Niño rises to 90%. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) markedly boosted the odds that an El Niño event will form in the tropical Pacific Ocean this summer, hastening climate change and altering global weather patterns.
What is the El Niño prediction for 2023? ›Taken together, these signals have allowed forecasters to increase their forecast confidence this month, with the likelihood of El Niño approaching 90% by summer and exceeding 90% through next fall and winter.
Will 2023 have an El Niño? ›Nevertheless, these recent developments in oceanic and atmospheric conditions in the tropical Pacific, along with current predictions and expert assessments, are indicating a strong likelihood of El Niño onset in the early second half of 2023, and its continuation during the remainder of the six-month forecast period.
Is 2023 El Niño or La Niña? ›La Niña—the cool phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern—has left the building! After a year and half of non-stop La Niña, the tropical Pacific ocean-atmosphere system has transitioned to neutral, allowing NOAA to issue its “Final La Niña Advisory”.
Who is most affected by El Niño? ›
A warming of the central to eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, El Niño 2015-2016 is affecting more than 60 million people, particularly in eastern and southern Africa, the Horn of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Are we in an El Niño year? ›Since 2020, the planet has been in a cold phase (La Niña) of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern. But that's about to change. Heading into spring 2023, we're approaching a likely transition from La Niña to the neutral phase of ENSO.
How do you prevent El Niño? ›There is nothing we can do to stop El Niño and La Niña events from occurring. The year-to-year oscillations between normal, warm, and cold conditions in the tropical Pacific associated with the ENSO cycle involve massive redistributions of upper ocean heat.
Does El Niño make it warmer or colder? ›In general, El Niño conditions lead to wetter, snowier conditions in Amarillo and cooler maximum temperatures during the winter. La Niña conditions lead to drier and warmer temperatures overall, with notable extreme cold spells. In stronger El Niño or La Niña episodes, these trends are even greater.
How can we reduce the effects of El Niño? ›- Evaluate your Property. ...
- Protect Against Soil Erosion. ...
- Use Sustainable Flowers, Shrubs, and Trees. ...
- Keep a Watchful Eye on Your Trees. ...
- Keep Storm Drains Clear.
The 1997–1998 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño–Southern Oscillation events in recorded history, resulting in widespread droughts, flooding and other natural disasters across the globe.
What years were the worst El Niño on record? ›The 1982–1983 El Niño event was one of the strongest El Niño events since records were kept.
Which is worse La Niña or El Niño? ›In the United States, because La Nina is connected to more Atlantic storms and deeper droughts and wildfires in the West, La Ninas often are more damaging and expensive than their more famous flip side, El Nino, experts said and studies show. Generally, American agriculture is more damaged by La Nina than El Nino.
Is El Niño caused by global warming? ›Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme El Niño events, leading to intensifying droughts, worsening floods, and shifting hurricane patterns, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Is El Niño happening now? ›Not Active: ENSO Alert System is not active. Neither El Niño nor La Niña are observed or expected in coming 6 months.
Will 2023 be a good summer? ›
La Niña is now predicted to end in 2023, bringing warmer conditions in parts of the Pacific Ocean. This is also why 2023 is expected to get hotter than 2022.
Will 2023 be a hotter year? ›The record for Earth's hottest year was set in 2016. There is a 98 percent chance that at least one of the next five years will exceed that, the forecasters said, while the average from 2023 to '27 will almost certainly be the warmest for a five-year period ever recorded.
How might El Niño change in the future? ›This pushes surface temperatures higher. If El Nino returns in 2023, global average temperatures could pass 1.5 degrees Celsius — the level to which world leaders promised to try to hold global warming by the end of the century.
Is El Niño good for California? ›Impact on California
In general, the effect of El Niño on California is increased rainfall with accompanying floods, landslides, and coastal erosion. The effects are variable across the state and are more predictable in Southern California.
El Niño events in 1982-1983 and 1997-1998 drenched the West Coast with record rain. The last El Nino, a weak one, occurred in 2018-2019. El Niño means the little boy or Christ child in Spanish.
What was the worst El Niño in history? ›The 1982–1983 El Niño event was one of the strongest El Niño events since records were kept.
What is the longest El Niño on record? ›The first half of the 1990s was unusual in that four years were all unusually warm in the equatorial Pacific. See The 1990-1995 El Niño-Southern Oscillation event: Longest on record.
Will 2023 be a wet year in California? ›The main takeaway: The chance of a wetter winter and spring in 2023-2024 has increased in California and the Southwest, due to the expected development of an El Niño. However as history has shown, it's no guarantee that these areas will have another wet winter and spring ahead.
Is 2023 summer going to be hot in California? ›The CPC predicts a hot summer for practically the entire country, including California, saying “the June-July-August (JJA) 2023 temperature outlook favors above normal temperatures over the western contiguous United States (CONUS), the southwest, southeast, and along the eastern seaboard to New England."