Heat waves, lack of rain and high temperatures were the common denominator of the last days of December 2022 and almost the entire month of January.
Some data of Province of Buenos Aires, for example: more than half of the surface of the San Vicente lagoon has no water, the Navarro lagoon is dry, 502 millimeters of rain was recorded in Ezeiza during 2022 when the annual average is 1012, more than double.
Effects of The girl, a phenomenon which caused a lack of rain and which occurred with unusual continuity. “Speaking in Creole, it’s crazy that there are four consecutive seasons of La Niña. It’s unprecedented, but yes, it’s something that is happening,” says Emiliano Presta, probably the most consulted meteorologist South of Greater Buenos Aires.
“It is a historic drought that has not been repeated since 2008“He adds. But he predicts novelty. He says: “Despite the heatwaves, favorable weather will arrive in February.”
On the other hand, he notes: ‘This demonstrates something that happens not only in the region but throughout the world, obviously wrong things are happening globally, and it’s up to people to do something or not.”
All in all, the 2022 drought has an even worse and not-so-distant history. That of 2008 was one of the strongest recorded in all of history of the province of Buenos Aires, with a total of 970 mm of rainfall accumulated between the years 2007-2008.
In addition to the lagoon of San Vicente, he cites those of Chascomús, Navarro, Lobos Santa Catalina (in Lomas de Zamora) and Laguna de Rocha (Esteban Echeverría). “They are all in the same situation”, underlines Presta. “These are areas that in terms of agriculture and livestock – he adds – are very rich”.
In a report produced by Southern South American Drought Information System (SISSA), the following is noted: “One of the most worrying states is the province of Buenos Aires, with almost 40% of the territory in a situation of extreme drought. In various locations in the north and east, it had up to 500mm less rainfall than normal, resulting in record accumulated minimum rainfall. Only 6% of the province is not dry, the rest is.”
Natalia Gattinoni, a graduate in Atmospheric Sciences and a member of the Institute for Climate and Water of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), points out: “There is a phenomenon that explains why there is so much rainfall in the country, is The girl”.
“Happens in the equatorial Pacific -detailed-, and requires the atmosphere and the ocean to be coupled and moving together. The cooler waters of the ocean will impact the movement of the atmosphere. This interplay between the ocean and the atmosphere causes them to collide and generate waves, and thus affects the lack of rain.”
“As regards livestock – continues Presta – much more money is spent not only on food itself, but also on water for the animals. but in the surrounding areas, which are wetlands and are totally dry.”
«Now it happens that people start working that land, which used to be a wetland, and that before, months or years ago, you couldn’t enter or enter, nothing like that. But now they go around in trucks people walk, YESwith producers who have started working those lands because there is no water, everything is completely dry,” comment.
As far as size is concerned, they are generally lagoons that are between two and three meters deep on average, reaching five meters in some cases.
“We were already watching a change in the air mass, fortunately the La Niña phenomenon will start to move and it will give rise to El Niño, which is humidity and precipitation,” remarked Presta.
“It’s all a chain – he remarks -. For the lagoon to recover, it is first necessary to recover the rivers, tributaries and canals that feed the countryside and which then flow into the lagoon. It’s a process that will take time, but in the long run there will be an upswing.”
Source: Clarin
