El Nino is expected to have its greatest impact in China's autumn.
China's National Climate?Centre stated on Friday that El Nino weather impacts will peak this autumn and winter before fading in spring of next year.
Gao Rong told reporters that the sea surface temperatures of the central and eastern Pacific in the equatorial region have entered El Nino. The event will intensify in summer and fall, before reaching its peak in autumn and winter.
He said that the probability of a strong El Nino event is on the rise, but it will likely weaken next spring.
EL NINO DURING A PERIOD RAPID DEVELOPMENT
El Nino is an El Nino weather pattern that occurs when the Pacific Ocean warms up in the middle and east. This causes heavier rains to fall on the Pacific Coast of the Americas. The shift in the Western Pacific can disrupt the East Asian Monsoon and increase the chances of flooding in Southern China or drought in other Chinese regions.
Gao?said that El Nino?is experiencing rapid growth this spring and summer. The atmosphere is responding to changes in sea temperatures.
The temperatures in most of China will be higher than normal, and this is expected to increase precipitation south of the Yangtze River.
In May, the average national temperature was 16.9 degrees Celsius (62.4 degrees Fahrenheit), which is 0.6 C above the previous year's same period.
El Nino's increased autumn rains in China's south regions could also disrupt the late-season harvest of rice. Meanwhile, warmer than usual winter conditions may reduce the water supply for spring ploughing next year.
SOUTHERN SOUTH POWER GRID FLAGS MULTIPLE PEAKS OF POWER LOAD
China's Southern Power Grid announced on Friday that the entire power grid network as well as provinces and regions such as Guangdong and Guangxi as well as Yunnan and Guizhou as?Hainan have reached?new power peak loads more than twenty times since the beginning of the year.
It said that this breaks the seasonal pattern where annual peaks are concentrated in June and/or July from 2020 to 2030.
Sharon Feng is a special advisor with Beijing-based consultancy firm Azure International. She said that the grid will be under unprecedented pressure this summer as the peak national load is expected to reach 1,600 gigawatts, an increase of 90?GW compared to last year.
She added that the El Nino cycle "makes hydropower unreliable during summer peak".
She said that gas-fired electricity generation faces significant economic challenges due to high LNG prices.
If wind and solar curtailment are not improved, coal-fired power plants will be the most reliable and cost-effective solution for critical peaking capacity. Reporting by Colleen howe and the Beijing newsroom; writing by Farah master; editing by Jacqueline Wong Stephen Coates, Jan Harvey
(source: Reuters)
