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La Niña has ended, is there a possibility of reversing the effects of the drought?

La Niña has ended, is there a possibility of reversing the effects of the drought?

The American Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA, for its acronym in English) announced that the phenomenon of Lto girl ended, giving rise to a neutral rainy phase, and at the same time achieving a precipitation normalization in it Uruguay.

The country had a summer crossed by a drought that occurred together with the climatic phenomenon of “The girl”, who was present three consecutive years. “It is a phenomenon that has existed for many centuries and is characterized by its climatic variability,” he explained to scope.com meteorologist and climate change specialist, Mario Bidegan.

This phenomenon has an irregular periodicity, between 2 to 7 years, and is called the El Niño/La Niña phase when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific tend to drop or rise 0.5°C above or below average temperatures. Unlike the El Niño phenomenon, La Niña generates below normal rainfall.

According to the meteorologist, “we entered a neutral phase of temperature anomalies of the sea surface in the equatorial Pacific Ocean”. “This implies a gradual normalization of rainfall in Uruguay and the region in the medium term (weeks),” explained Bidegain, who added that this would take place within the autumn that is beginning.

What about the water deficit?

In the first place, Bidegain remarked that, in the rain forecast for April and May of this year, normal rains are seen in Uruguay. According to the meteorologist, the water deficit will begin to reverse for two reasons: registered rains and forecast shortly and, on the other hand, a drop in temperatures.

“We are going to observe a “greening” in the coming days, that is, an improvement in the state of the pastures and a gradual recovery of the water and groundwater levels,” explained Bidegain. The superficial water tables refer to the humidity that the first centimeters of the soil have.

The losses caused by the drought

According to the Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, fernando mattosUruguay will lose at least $1.8 billion due to the prolonged drought and described that the scenario facing agriculture and the national industry is the most difficult in the last 30 years.

Added to this, there is the impact on the crops of soy which are 60% ruined due to lack of water, this will also be decisive in the blow to exports since the item represented one of the records last year, with almost 2,000 million dollars.

The fodder structure It was also affected by the drought. Minister Mattos reported the difficulties that exist to rebuild it, since it could not be sown even though there is a large volume of seeds, which also registered an increase in prices.

Given the lack of animal feed, some producers “let go” of their breeding cows, affecting a livestock market “oversupplied”, hence, various cuts of meat are experiencing a drop in consumer prices.

Source: Ambito

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