The current El Niño phase is dissipating. But this doesn't mean we can let our guard down. An analysis by Berkeley Earth published last week stated that 2024 will almost definitely be either the warmest or second warmest year on record, says Nick Hedley.
Farmers
across Southern Africa could soon breathe a sigh of relief as an intense El
Niño period draws to a close.
El Niño events, which occur naturally every few years, are fuelled by above-average sea surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean. The temporary warming there has major implications for weather patterns across the planet and tends to bring drier and hotter conditions to the southern half of Africa.