Climate UN: Current La Niña phase likely to be short-lived
According to the UN, the La Niña weather phenomenon is expected to be "short-lived". La Niña is "weak", explained the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Thursday.
06.03.2025, 05:10
SDA
The weather phenomenon is associated with lower global temperatures and has been occurring since last December. The probability that conditions will normalize between March and May is currently 60 percent, it added.
Last year, the WMO expressed the hope that the return of La Niña would help to lower temperatures slightly. The opposing weather phenomenon El Niño had previously led to heat records worldwide for months.
It is now considered unlikely that the current La Niña phase will have a significant impact on temperatures. Despite La Niña, January 2025 was the "warmest January on record", according to the WMO.
Above-average temperatures expected worldwide
La Niña refers to a cooling of the sea surface in large parts of the Pacific in conjunction with wind, rain and changes in air pressure. In many areas, especially in the tropics, the weather phenomenon usually reverses the effects of the El Niño phenomenon.
Regardless of La Niña and El Niño, the WMO expects above-average sea surface temperatures to "persist in all major oceans", apart from the eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator. The organization also predicted "above-average temperatures worldwide" on land.
Although both weather phenomena are natural climate events, the WMO emphasized that they "occur in the broader context of human-induced climate change, which is increasing global temperatures, exacerbating extreme weather and climate events, and affecting seasonal precipitation and temperature patterns."
