The ocean has a memory: El Niño-like patterns could last for hundreds of years, climatologists warn

A new study warns that changes in ocean temperatures, winds and rainfall across the tropical Pacific could persist for centuries, even if carbon dioxide emissions stop. Reaching net zero as soon as possible would reduce this risk.

Global warming could alter the usual behaviour of the Pacific Ocean for much longer than previously thought.

Even if the world managed to stop carbon dioxide emissions, some of the changes affecting this region could persist for centuries, with consequences for the El Niño and La Niña phenomena and weather patterns in different parts of the planet.

This is the warning from new research led by scientists at the University of Melbourne and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Weather of the 21st Century in Australia. The study, published in the scientific journal Communications Earth & Environment, analysed how the tropical Pacific would evolve during global warming and what would happen once emissions ceased.

The main conclusion is that achieving net zero emissions is essential, but it does not mean the climate system will immediately return to the conditions that existed before the industrial era.

The ocean has a memory of global warming

One of the keys …….