The Wall Street Journal reports,"the United Nations‘ World Meteorological Organization said its weather model forecasts show a fairly large potential for the occurrence of a weather phenomenon known as El Niño by mid-year, threatening to hinder production of various food crops around the globe".
"An El Niño phenomenon is associated with above-average water temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific and can in its worst form bring drought to West Africa (the world’s largest cocoa producing region), less rainfall to India during its vital Monsoon season and drier conditions for the cultivations crops such as sugar and cotton in major grower Australia.
“Model forecasts indicate a fairly large potential for an El Niño, most likely by the end of the second quarter of 2014,” according to the World Meteorological Organization.
“For the June to August period, approximately two-thirds of the models surveyed predict that El Niño thresholds will be reached, while the remaining models predict a continuation of neutral conditions. A few models predict an earlier El Niño onset, such as in May. No model suggests a La Niña in 2014,” said the weather body".
Interesting facts about El Niño:
-El Niño, Spanish for young boy, because it develops in December and is identified with the Christ Child. Its opposite manifestation La Niña brings cooling to sea-surface temperatures
-During El Niño, thunderstorm activity from Indonesia into the central Pacific area brings abnormally dry conditions over northern Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and northern Brazil
-Meanwhile, wetter than normal conditions tend to occur along the west coast of tropical South America, and southern Brazil to central Argentina
