‘El Nino ends, yet effects to persist until June’

ISTANBUL

The climate phenomenon of El Nino, which caused record-breaking temperatures both in Türkiye and in the rest of world last summer, has come to an end, but its effects will persist until July, a meteorology expert has said.

El Nino's intensity has ceased from the Peruvian coasts, said Levent Kurnaz, the director of the Climate Change and Policies Implementation and Research Center at Boğaziçi University.

Kurnaz emphasized that globally, El Nino's impacts will continue until mid-July, during which experts anticipate new temperature records.

He highlighted that throughout the entire 11 months since the onset of El Nino last year, temperature records have been broken, with May likely concluding with record highs as well.

This recent El Nino event, unlike the "Super El Nino" of 1998 and 2016, wasn't exceptionally strong, he said.

However, due to its overlay on climate change, temperatures soared, leading to various calamities worldwide for months, which are likely to persist, he said.

“Amidst ongoing climate change, there's a continuous upward trend in global average temperatures. While sometimes exacerbated by El Nino, or mitigated by La Nina, temperatures consistently ascend. It's now predictable that during El Nino episodes, temperatures will hit near-record highs.”

“Even if El Nino doesn't occur for three years or even during La Nina events, high temperature records will be broken due to the intensified background climate change.”