2025 La Niña Is Here
Image of the Day for February 7, 2025
Instrument: Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich
After a seven-month wait, La Niña—a natural climate pattern known as the “cooler sibling” of El Niño—finally arrived in the eastern Pacific Ocean in early December 2024. However, scientists say it might not stay long. By spring 2025, the Pacific could return to normal conditions.
What is La Niña?
La Niña occurs when strong east-to-west winds push warm surface water toward Asia and Australia, allowing cooler water from deeper parts of the ocean to rise in the eastern and central Pacific near the equator. This cooling affects weather patterns worldwide by changing air moisture and wind currents.
Current Status
On January 9, 2025, NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) confirmed La Niña’s arrival. In a key monitoring zone called the Niño 3.4 region, ocean temperatures were 0.7°C (1.3°F) cooler than average. Satellite data also showed lower sea levels in the eastern Pacific (cool water takes up less space), while higher sea levels appeared near warmer areas. These maps, created using NASA’s Sentinel-6 satellite, focus only on short-term changes, filtering out seasonal patterns.
How Strong Is This La Niña?
Scientists say this event is mild compared to past ones. For example, in January 2011, temperatures dropped 1.6°C (2.9°F) below average, while this year’s drop is just 0.7°C. NOAA predicts it will stay weak and fade by March-May 2025.
What Does This Mean for Global Weather?
La Niña can shift rain and drought patterns:
- More rain in parts of Indonesia, Australia, and Central America.
- Drier conditions in Brazil, Argentina, and the southern U.S.
- Cooler, stormier weather in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
La Niña and Climate Change
While La Niña temporarily cools the Pacific, it doesn’t reverse long-term global warming. In fact, some of the hottest years on record (like 2010 and 2020) happened during La Niña events. This shows how human-driven climate change continues to drive rising temperatures, even with natural cooling phases.
Original article by NASA Earth Observatory. Edited using DeepSeek
Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/153917/la-nina-is-here
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