New research suggests global warming could double the risk of extreme La Niña events.
Researchers predicted a two-fold increase in the frequency of this type of weather. The phenomenon could lead extreme weather conditions such as torrential rains or debilitating droughts, the University of Exeter reported. The 70 percent predicted increases in La Niña following El Niño could cause extreme weather events in certain parts of the world.
"An increased frequency in extreme La Niña events, most of which occur in the year after an extreme El Niño, would mean an increase in the occurrence of devastating weather events with profound socio-economic consequences," said scientist Wenju Cai, from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and featured scientists from Australia, China, the US, France and Peru.
To make their findings the researchers used state-of-the-art climate modeling to determine how future climate trends will influence La Niña events.
El Niño and La Niña events are opposite phases of the natural climate. La Niña events escalate when cold sea surface temperatures interact with the warming land areas of Maritime Southeast Asia. The model's findings suggest increased land warming and El Niño events could cause La Niña to occur once every 13 years, as opposed to the usual 23 years.
"Our previous research showed a doubling in frequency of extreme El Niño events, and this new study shows a similar fate for the cold phase of the cycle. It shows again how we are just beginning to understand the consequences of global warming," said co-author professor Mat Collins, from Exeter's College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Nature Climate Change.
