El Niño 2015/2016: Impact Analysis of Past El Niños

This report analyses El Niño events over the last 35 years and identiies regions where there is an increased likelihood of an impact occurring

Abstract

El Niño conditions are currently present in the Pacific and are forecast to develop into a strong event peaking later this year. Events such as this are a significant perturbation, or ‘kick’, to the climate system and can affect weather patterns globally. This report analyses El Niño events over the last 35 years and aims to identify regions where there is an increased likelihood of an impact occurring. This analysis is based on past analogous events and is not a prediction for this year.

After the brief introduction, Section 2 describes El Niño and discusses what is expected during 2015-16, providing a summary of current forecasts. Section 3 provides a summary of the historical global impacts of El Niño, scenarios for types of El Niño and looks at global changes in probability of extremes. Section 4 considers impacts by region and country: Southern Africa, West Africa, east Africa, Central Africa, Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA), Indonesia, Southern Asia, Southeast Asian Peninsula, Caribbean, and British Overseas Territories.

This report has been produced by University of Reading and National Centre for Atmospheric Science for Evidence on Demand with the assistance of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) contracted through the Climate, Environment, Infrastructure and Livelihoods Professional Evidence and Applied Knowledge Services (CEIL PEAKS) programme, jointly managed by DAI (which incorporates HTSPE Limited) and IMC Worldwide Limited.

Citation

Hirons, L.; Klingaman, N. El Niño 2015/2016: Impact Analysis of Past El Niños. Evidence on Demand, UK (2015) ii + 17 pp. [DOI: 10.12774/eod_cr.august2015.hironsletal]

El Niño 2015/2016: Impact Analysis of Past El Niños

Published 1 January 2015