The year 2019 has already begun and scientists had warned since last year itself that 2019 may be the hottest year ever recorded. All thanks to two factors, one of them being an El Nino year along with global warming at its peak.
Moreover, El Niño is expected to form and continue through winter of the Northern Hemisphere (2018-19). There are chances that it may continue into the spring of 2019.
El Niño occurs when SSTs in the Pacific Ocean are above average for a period and can last between 4 and 16 months. It has an effect on the global temperatures, taking them towards the warmer side. La Niña, is just the opposite when the SSTs in the Pacific are below normal which eventually has a cooling effect on the temperatures as well.
This is very similar to El Niño of 2015 which slipped to early 2016 resulting in 2016 being the hottest year on record. In fact, as per EU scientists, 2018 has followed a similar suite behind the years 2016 and 2017.
The year 2018 started under La Niña conditions, which generally has a cooling effect on global temperatures, but it was not enough to get rid of the warming caused by Global Warming.
Moreover, since late April 2018, SSTs in the Pacific returned to neutral levels. However, coming back to 2019, it does look quite bad and the year may just become the hottest ever.
Image Credit: firstchoicepower
