Do we have a “Godzilla” el-Nino on the way?
Early Breakfast with Africa Melane · 2 June 2026 · 10m
Speaker 1: Can I leave that Monday to Friday four in six am on seven O two. Speaker 2: And K Talk. Southern Africa is once again facing growing concerns over the possible return Speaker 2: of a powerful and ninia where the pattern, with some climate scientists warning it could Speaker 2: become one of the strongest on record. Aluna is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon linked Speaker 2: to unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, and it is typically Speaker 2: associated with hotter and drier conditions across much of Southern Africa. On the line with Speaker 2: us is Professor Rulaberger, climatologist at Northwest University. Professor, thank you so much for joining Speaker 2: us. How are you this morning? Speaker 1: I'm very cold in the center of South Africa morning. Yeah. Speaker 2: We're climbing out into fridges to get into our offices this morning. But I'm a Speaker 2: huge tree haga, prof And I tend to overthink and and a lot of time Speaker 2: I'm concerned. I look at a lot of the conservation happening and for listeners unfamiliar Speaker 2: with the science, what exactly is onini and why does it have such a significant Speaker 2: influence on weather patterns in Southern Africa? Speaker 1: Okay, so al Nino is basically what we call a blob of warm water that Speaker 1: accumulates in the eastern Pacific, and this has been shown to cause these global disruption Speaker 1: of weather patterns. So what happens is the easterly winds over South America weakens a Speaker 1: little bit and then we get more of this warm water bubbling up from the Speaker 1: subsurface of the ocean, and that then has a secondary impact on the…
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