Heavy rains in Colombia have left 60,000 people homeless and destroyed
328 houses and severely damaged another 2,047 so far this year,
authorities say.
Humbero González, prognosis chief of the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM), told newspaper El Tiempo that rains may be the aftermath of La Niña, a phenomenon that hit Colombia last year and made the differences between the tradition dry and rainy seasons disappear, resulting in a record number of floods.
“The Pacific Ocean regulates the world’s climate, because it’s the largest. Because of that, we hoped the temperature of its water would stop being cold and reached a medium level this point in time like always happens. This did not happen and the temperatures remained low. That’s why clouds and rains moved from the south of the Americas (Brazil, Peru and Ecuador)to the Andean region,” González explained the newspaper.
A stranger phenomenon is that some studies suggest that this cooling of the water will last and the rainy season could last until the middle of this year.
From July on, U.S. climate analysis centers say there will be a new El Niño, a long season of drought, which in the coming months will be confirmed by additional studies.
“Strange things are happening to the climate these days. The seasons and what we call dry or rainy season may have to be reviewed,” González said.
The new circumstances make it difficult for meteorologists to predict and calculate the weather. It’s possible that the rainy season, traditionally starting in March, has been moved forward a month.