Peru is facing an El Niño Costero phenomenon, a weather event consisting of the abnormal warming of the waters of the equatorial Pacific near the South American coasts. This phenomenon, although weak for now, will continue until June next year with the continued heavy rainfall causing floods and avalanches.
The regional phenomenon _which also affects Ecuador, and which should not be confused with the El Nino phenomenon_, comes after sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific have been anomalous in recent years low, about 0.5. at 1.0°C lower than average.
The American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) explains this in its article Sea warming and downpours in Peruthat this prolonged “triple dip” of La Niña _with low temperatures_ it came to an end in February 2023 when variable winds halted the upwelling of cold water off the coasts of Peru and Ecuador.
As cold water inflows eased in March and April 2023, Pacific surface temperatures rose several degrees above normal in an area that extended several hundred miles west of the coast of South America.
The changes are so great that Peru’s National Meteorology and Hydrology Service (Senamhi) has said the area is now experiencing a coastal El Niño.
NASA satellite images show changes in the surface temperature of the sea on April 4, 2023. The surface water was 6°C warmer than normal off the coast of Peru.
Unusually warm waters have played a role in causing heavy rainfall on land, with northern Peru, Ecuador and parts of western Brazil that have been receiving regular heavy rainfall since mid-March, NASA indicates.
The rains became particularly heavy after rising ocean temperatures fueled Tropical Cyclone Yaku, which brought even more rain to the normally dry area.
The storm, the first tropical cyclone to hit the area in decades, was disorganized and blind, but it dropped record amounts of rain in semi-arid northern Peru on March 9, 2023.
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The warm sea surface temperatures coincided with the part of the year when Peru normally experiences the highest offshore water temperatures, explained René Garreaud, an environmental scientist at the University of Chile.
This caused the temperature of the sea surface to rise above 27 °C (80 °F), accelerated evaporation, making the air more humid and fueling the formation of high convective clouds that bring downpours and thunderstorms.
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The situation is similar to that of 2017, the last time a coastal El Niño flooded the area with rain.
Source: Eluniverso
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