There’s probably some correlation between how bad-ass a weather pattern’s name is and how brutal it’ll be. Take, for instance, the ‘bear’s cage’ or ‘killing frost’, which are equally rad-sounding and actually harmful. Still, El Niño tops them all in both categories.
El Niño don’t care about your crops, bushfires or heatwaves. And El Niño is coming for you.
So say the fine folk at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, who claim that not only will 2015 be the hottest year on record worldwide, but that Australia will swelter through its warmest summer since people started keeping track; The BoM’s director Rob Vertessy said they “forecast [El Niño] to get there eventually around Christmas, and the phenomenon could persist well into autumn.”
FWIW, El Niño is caused by rising temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean. This messes with rainfall patterns, and takes a whole lot of water that would otherwise fall on mainland Australia and dumps it over the ocean. Rude, tbh.
Last time this system hit, the government was forced to spend over $4.5 billion on drought relief measures which only ended in 2012. Last year turned out to be pretty bloody hot too, and if the Climate Council is to be believed, temperatures by 2090 will still leave these in the dust.
Yikes. Get ready ‘Straya, this one’s not gonna be pleasant.
Story via News Corp.
Image: Jodie Griggs via Getty.
