La Nina pattern likely to play havoc with world's weather: UN
Pastor Dale Morgan
La Nina pattern likely to play havoc with world's weather: UN*
GENEVA, July 20 (AFP) Jul 20, 2007
The UN's weather agency on Friday said a disruptive La Nina climate
pattern was taking shape in the Pacific, raising the prospect of an
active Atlantic hurricane season and strong monsoons in Asia.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said in a statement that the
development of La Nina in the second half of 2007 was now "more likely
than not" after an initial hesitation in the past two months.
The combination of tropical wind patterns over the Pacific Ocean and
cooler than normal sea temperatures off the Pacific seaboard of Latin
America generally has an impact "of planetary scale," WMO scientist Rupa
Kumar Kolli said.
"La Nina conditions are frequently associated with stronger monsoon
rainfall and flooding in Asia and... higher frequency of hurricanes in
the Atlantic," he told journalists.
"Now things seem to be on track for the development of La Nina, but it
is likely to be a weak La Nina event rather than a strong one."
However, the WMO highlighted other unusual climatic conditions in the
Atlantic and Indian Ocean which could reinforce the disruption to local
weather in the coming months.
They included warmer than usual sea surface temperatures in the North
Atlantic, an unusually warm sea current off the Atlantic coast of
southern Africa, and similar warm conditions in the western Indian Ocean.
The nine to 12 month La Nina traditionally causes heavy rainfall in
Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, droughts in parts of South America,
an increased number of storms in the tropical Atlantic, cold snaps in
North America and wetter conditions in southeastern Africa.
The Atlantic hurricane season is at its most active in August and
September. US experts have predicted that a total of about nine to 10
Atlantic hurricanes could form in the course of 2007 after a relative
lull last year.
In 2005, record hurricanes struck the US city of New Orleans and the
southern US seaboard, on top of the Caribbean, killing about 1,500
people in the United States alone and causing massive flooding and
economic disruption.
Monsoon rains generally sweep south Asia until September, causing
flooding and hundreds of deaths every year in some of the world's most
densely populated areas. Southwestern Pakistan has suffered harsh
monsoons so far this season.
However, they also bring most of the annual rainfall to some areas and
are vital for local farming.
La Nina brings the reverse pattern of extremes to the equally disruptive
El Nino phenomenon, which was blamed for the worst droughts in a century
in Australia, a record warm winter in South Korea, and floods in Bolivia
and East Africa in 2006 and early 2007.