What is El Niño?

Several warnings have been aired about the probability of the so-called El Niño phenomenon hitting the Philippine sometime in the middle of this year.

This early, the different branches of government have been instituting measures to mitigate the effects of the weather phenomenon which wreaked havoc on the agriculture sector in previous years.

El Niño comes from the Spanish term for Christ Child since its effects peak during the Christmas season. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, Astronomical and Services Administration (PAGASA) describes El Niño as a large oceanographic phenomenon that develops in the Pacific Ocean and is associated with extreme climatic variability. It is the invasion from time to time of warm sea surface water from Western equatorial region along the coast of Peru and Ecuador. It can prevail for more than a year and cause anomalous atmospheric circulation that results in heavy rains or strong winds in some areas and drought in others. According to PAGASA, the phenomenon occurs every two to seven years and is interrupted with a reverse phenomenon called La Niña.

El Niño can seriously affect the environment and the people’s socio-economic condition. On the environment, it can lead to extreme drying up of soil resulting in lower yields of agricultural products, forest and grassland fires and watershed degradation and depletion of other sources of water resulting in poor water supply, both in terms of quality and quantity. The phenomenon can disrupt people’s normal activities, result in low productivity of industries, food shortages, health problems due to contaminated drinking water and excessive heat, among others.