Turiassu flooded street in Sao Paulo. Photo: Flickr /Fernando Stankuns (Creative Commons)

target="_blank"> href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=52570#.Vk4bXNKrSM9", increasing the temperature in the Pacific Ocean can step it up even more by the end of the year, generating the third major impact in 65 years, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The phenomenon alters weather patterns and causes prolonged catastrophic floods and droughts, with impacts on tens of millions of people worldwide. To the head of WMO, however, "the world has never been more prepared to face this phenomenon as now."

Michel Jarraud explained, Wednesday (18) that global warming has limited ability to measure the impact of this phenomenon in isolation. "There is no clarity on how the El Niño interacts with climate change. Even before the onset of El Niño, the average global surface temperature had reached new records. El Niño is increasing the temperature further, "he told a news conference in Geneva.

The countries most affected by this phenomenon have already taken steps to lessen the impact on agriculture, fishery, water and health, and are working on the development of campaigns to save lives and minimize economic losses, based on the guidelines of the National Service Meteorology and Hydrology.
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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) alarmed that 11 million children are at risk of hunger, of acquiring diseases and suffer from lack of water in East Africa and south of the continent. The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that 2.3 million people in Central America will need food aid as El Niño aggravate drought.

In South America, El Nino tends to increase the amount of rainfall. In 1997 and 1998, rainfall in the central part of Ecuador and Peru were ten times more frequent than normal, causing flooding, large erosions and landslides, destruction of houses and infrastructure.