Governments brace for historic El Nino impacts on global weather extremes

Governments are preparing for heightened risks of drought, flooding, extreme heat and wildfires as a rapidly strengthening El Nino raises the prospect of a historic climate event later this year.

Sri Lanka has arranged ⁠for water to be delivered to nearly 72,000 people across seven districts as the country tackles a drought linked to this year’s powerful El Nino, a ⁠senior official said on Thursday.

Water levels at hundreds of small tanks in the country have dropped to about 10 percent. Families are expected to receive about 75 litres (20 gallons) of water every two to ‌three days for their drinking and sanitation needs during truck deliveries from parts of the country unaffected by the drought.

The government has allocated 4.8 billion rupees ($14m) from the budget for water distribution.

Minister of Environment Dammika Patabendi told reporters the government expected El Nino to peak around November but ⁠now believed it would peak sooner.

“We will revise and extend response measures as necessary,” he said.

After September, Patabendi ⁠said, the year-end monsoons should bring heavy rain, but drought could return at the beginning of next year.

Indonesia, Peru, Honduras

Meanwhile in Indonesia, the government says wildfires have burned through more than 200,000 hectares (494,200 acres) since the start of the year, an area around three times the size of the sprawling capital Jakarta.

In July alone, fires destroyed 95,000 hectares (234,750 acres) of land across Indonesia as dry conditions driven by a powerful El Nino weather pattern took hold.

Thick smog caused by the flames is blanketing areas like Palangkaraya, the capital of Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan in Borneo, causing poor air quality.

The mayor advised people to wear masks and stay indoors. Motorists who ventured out battled through brown haze that reduced visibility.

Indonesia’s Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni told reporters in Palangkaraya on Wednesday that experts were on standby for cloud seeding operations to quell fires and prevent future ones.

“Should there be even the slightest trace of a cloud suitable for seeding, and provided it is technically feasible to seed it, we will carry out a weather modification operation,” he said.

Elsewhere, the US says it will send a military hospital to the coast of Peru next year to help the country cope with the effects of El Nino.

And in the Central American nation of Honduras, the government has put 80 percent of the country, including the capital, on drought alert after El Nino-related dry weather burned harvests and caused livestock to die.

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern driven by unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. It typically reshapes weather patterns across much of the world and brings heightened risks of drought, flooding, extreme heat and wildfires. This year’s event is predicted to be one of the worst on record.