Windhoek
El Niño is pounding at the world’s door right now, and there’s no way to stop it from barging in.
The phenomenon causes major global weather and climate fluctuations that can wreak havoc on the world’s agricultural market including in Namibia where country has been struggling with the effects of two consecutive droughts. The El Niño Southern Oscillation is associated with persistent, warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and consistent changes in wind and rainfall patterns. These weather anomalies can wreak havoc on crops and the agriculture market. Namibia is currently reeling from the dismal crop harvests of the present season and the country has to import more than 209 thousand tonnes of cereals in the coming weeks.
Back in March, the arrival of El Niño was officially declared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in its monthly outlook. The ocean-atmospheric phenomenon was marked by warmer-than-average SSTs in the central Pacific Ocean near the equator. The Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) report of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations release this news on June spelling out possible impact on agricultural production during the second half of 2015.
There’s a 90% chance that El Niño conditions will continue through the summer in the Northern Hemisphere. And there’s an over-80% probability that it’ll last until the end of the year.