the “La Niña” phenomenon deciphered by a meteorologist

They are two sides of the same coin. Right side, El Ninoto synonymous with higher temperatures. On the other hand, La Niña tends to reduce them. The European Copernicus Observatory, in its latest monthly bulletin published Thursday March 7, reported an overheating planet over the last 12 months: the world experienced a temperature 1.56°C higher than the average climate of the 19th century.^e century, underlines the European observatory.

In question ? The thermal inertia of the oceans, coupled with global warming and the El Niño phenomenon. The latter, according to the World Meteorological Organization, reached its peak in December and should therefore subside to eventually give way to its little sister, La Niña.

Interviewed by franceinfo, Sébastien Léas, forecaster at Météo France, explains this phenomenon to us, while reminding us that the arrival of La Niña is still tinged with uncertainties.

Franceinfo: How can we define La Ninothas ?

Sébastien Léas: La Niña is a large-scale climatological phenomenon, a cold anomaly in surface temperatures that occurs over the Pacific basin. It is the counterpart of El Niño, which is a warm anomaly in surface temperatures observed every two to seven years. The consequences in both cases are planetary, but one does not induce the other. It is implied that La Niña will occur when there is no El Niño, but there are also years when neither is observed. Over the last 50-70 years, we must have had around twenty episodes of El Niño and a little over fifteen for La Niña.

While we have just experienced the warmest winter on record, La Niña could cause temperatures to drop. That’s pretty good news, right?

The Ninotmoderated a little the abnormally high temperatures caused by El Ninoto. But there is always the inertia of global warming which means that, in any case, we will have high temperatures, at least on a global level. So that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to be colder this summer either. In 2020, La Niña was observed in the Pacific and yet this year was the warmest globally – since surpassed by subsequent years.

What are the consequences ?

La Niña does not hit all regions of the world in the same way. In the Pacific, we can expect to see fewer typhoons which are generally the work of El Niño. We will be able to observe less precipitation in Indonesia, there will also be visible impacts in Peru and Brazil. Elsewhere, there could be more tropical showers. La Niña can cause hurricanes on the Atlantic side. But the further away we go, the more difficult the phenomenon is to observe. The consequences are also visible on wildlife, fish in particular will move when the water temperature increases, during the El Niño phenomenon. They will come back when La Niña arrives. Which can have an impact on fishing. But we must not forget that there is climate variability. There is no absolute truth, we try to think on a global level.