The World Meteorological Organization WMO warns that the effects of the El Niño weather phenomenon will continue until at least April 2024.
The heavy rains and floods caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon have driven hundreds of people to shelters in the city of Ayolas in the southern parts of Paraguay, reports news agency Reuters. The city’s residents have to prepare for continued flooding.
At least five residential areas of the city were left at the mercy of floodwaters when the Paraná River overflowed its banks due to last week’s storms.
The recent heavy rains have affected the lives of approximately 35,000 people in the country, according to the estimates of Paraguay’s Ministry of Emergency Situations. According to the local authorities of Ayolas, around 3,700 residents of the town have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the heavy rains.
– We were warned that the water level would rise considerably, so my whole family left the house, says the 61-year-old resident of Ayolas Pascacio Mercado.
– By morning, the water reached my and my neighbors’ houses and started flooding in, he adds.
On Wednesday, some children are said to have traveled to their schools along flooded streets by alternative means, such as by boat.
“El Niño is already affecting”
According to weather forecasts, more storm clouds will arrive in the area during the weekend due to the El Niño weather phenomenon.
The El Niño phenomenon is a periodic change in ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean. The warming of the sea water caused by it incites the emergence of extreme weather phenomena in different parts of the American continent. Extreme events range from wildfires to tornadoes and droughts in some areas and heavy rains in others.
– The El Niño phenomenon is already having an effect, director of the Paraguayan Meteorological Institute Eduardo Mingo says.
– We expected it to show its face, and now we saw it hit the south and southeast parts of the country with these heavy rains, Mingo says.
The World Meteorological Organization under the UN, WMO, says that the El Niño weather phenomenon will continue this term at least until April 2024. El Niño will raise the temperatures in the region even this year, which is likely to become the warmest in recorded history.
Source: Reuters