James Renwick from New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research said, the equatorial Pacific is experiencing unusual El Niño behavior with the tradewinds are not easing as normal.
“The tradewinds are the winds that blow in the tropics pretty much all the time. They blow from the East to the West. And when we have an El Niño those tradewinds weaken off, and that helps the sea temperature to warm up. What we’ve seen up to date this year is sea temperatures have warmed up in the East but the tradewinds haven’t really weakened.”
Renwick said as a result, Papua New Guinea, Tokelau and the northern Cook Islands will be drier than normal and above normal rainfall is forecast for Eastern and Western Kiribati.
