{"id":1137,"date":"2014-07-11T12:02:40","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T18:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/?p=1137"},"modified":"2014-07-11T12:22:51","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T18:22:51","slug":"el-nino-weather-threat-to-australia-asia-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/?p=1137","title":{"rendered":"El Ni\u00f1o weather threat to Australia, Asia this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/em>AN EL Ni\u00f1o weather pattern, which can parch Australia and parts of Asia while bringing rain to South America, may occur in coming months, says Australia\u2019s Bureau of Meteorology.<\/p>\n

International climate models surveyed by the bureau show Pacific Ocean temperatures approaching or exceeding El Ni\u00f1o thresholds in the austral winter, the forecaster said on Tuesday. The El Ni\u00f1o-Southern Oscillation remains neutral at present, it said. Australia\u2019s winter runs from June to August.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1os affect weather worldwide and can roil agricultural markets as farmers contend with drought or too much rain. There\u2019s a 75% chance that one will occur in late 2014, says a report in journal PNAS this month. An El Ni\u00f1o may worsen dry weather in parts of Australia and Asia as Singapore and parts of Malaysia and Indonesia are already experiencing little rain.<\/p>\n

Winter crops in Australia will be “greatly affected as it\u2019s pretty much the crucial time through that period where they need rainfall,” said Graydon Chong, an analyst at Rabobank International in Sydney.<\/p>\n

“That has knock-on effects to other commodities, livestock for example. The availability of feed and availability of pasture as a result of the hotter and drier conditions will play a big part.”<\/p>\n

An El Ni\u00f1o toward the end of this year would increase temperatures globally in 2015, and having more time to prepare would help farmers and government agencies, researchers Josef Ludescher and Armin Bunde said in the PNAS report.<\/p>\n

About 70% of Queensland state is in drought after its driest December since 1938, while New South Wales had the least rain in January since 2003, Bureau of Meteorology data show. Dry conditions will boost beef and veal exports to a record 1.1-million tons in the year ending June 30 and cotton production is set to decline, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences estimates.<\/p>\n

Growth in Indonesia\u2019s palm oil output will be limited in the first half by dry weather, Wilmar International said. Water rationing began in areas surrounding Malaysia\u2019s capital after a prolonged drought, Selangor state chief minister Khalid Ibrahim said. Dry weather may last until middle to the end of March, the Malaysian Meteorological Department said.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o and La Ni\u00f1a weather patterns have historically been severely disruptive for palm oil production, HSBC Holdings said on January 28. El Ni\u00f1o is the most damaging, causing output to drop long after the weather pattern has subsided, it said. Indonesia and Malaysia are the world\u2019s largest palm producers.<\/p>\n

While the pattern causes dry weather in Asia, an El Ni\u00f1o typically creates ideal growing conditions in the US Midwest during the summer, which is when the weather pattern is expected to occur this year, Art Douglas, meteorologist at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, said on February 5.<\/p>\n

“As we start to get into the middle of the year, that\u2019s the crucial time and when people start watching indicators” including the Southern Oscillation Index, Rabobank\u2019s Mr Chong said today. “It\u2019s really once we get into middle months that we start looking at the impacts in the third quarter.”<\/p>\n

Global food costs tracked by the United Nations dropped in January to the lowest level since June 2012. Palm oil gained 3.1% this year, and cotton futures rallied 5.8% and the price of Thai broken white rice, an Asian benchmark, climbed 2.9%.<\/p>\n

“Warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean is likely in the coming months,” the Australian weather bureau said in its fortnightly ENSO update on Tuesday. “Recent observations add weight to the model outlooks. The tropical Pacific Ocean subsurface has warmed substantially in recent weeks.”<\/p>\n

Bloomberg (2\/26\/2014). El Ni\u00f1o weather threat to Australia, Asia this year, Retrieved from http:\/\/www.bdlive.co.za\/world\/asia\/2014\/02\/26\/el-nino-weather-threat-to-australia-asia-this-year<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AN EL Ni\u00f1o weather pattern, which can parch Australia and parts of Asia while bringing rain to South America, may occur in coming months, says Australia\u2019s Bureau of Meteorology. International climate models surveyed by the bureau show Pacific Ocean temperatures approaching or exceeding El Ni\u00f1o thresholds in the austral winter, the forecaster said on Tuesday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assorted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1137"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1145,"href":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetimeuniversity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}