"Super El Ni?o Coming... Heatwave from 8 Years Ago May Recur"

Professor Ham Yu-geun of Chonnam National University, CBS Radio Interview
"This Heatwave Occurred Due to Overlapping Climate Change and El Ni?o"
As Climate Change Progresses, El Ni?o Frequency and Intensity Increase

On the 16th, daytime temperatures in most regions across the country, including Seoul, are expected to rise above 30 degrees Celsius, signaling early summer heat. Abnormal high-temperature phenomena are also occurring in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, where the perceived temperature has reached 50 degrees Celsius. This appears to be due to the rapid temperature increase caused by the overlapping effects of global warming and El Ni?o.

Professor Ham Yoo-geun of the Department of Earth Environmental Sciences at Chonnam National University said in an interview with CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' on the same day, "We expect a situation where heatwaves similar to those 7 or 8 years ago could occur."

The 7 to 8 years ago referenced by Professor Ham was a year when many parts of the globe suffered from heatwaves. Due to the super El Ni?o that occurred from late 2015 to 2016, unprecedented droughts struck Southeast Asia, causing a sharp decline in rice production, and over 2,000 people died from heatwaves in India. In 2016, South Korea also recorded an annual average temperature of 13.6 degrees Celsius, 1.1 degrees higher than usual, marking the hottest year on record.

He pointed to the overlapping of global warming and El Ni?o as the cause of the abnormal high-temperature phenomena currently appearing in various parts of the world, including Thailand and Vietnam. Professor Ham explained, "There have been 3 to 4 super El Ni?os in the past, but the high-temperature phenomena are much more pronounced now than before. It seems that the temperature rose rapidly not just because of the super El Ni?o alone, but because climate change overlapped with it."

On July 28 last year, a citizen is cooling off with a handheld fan in Myeongdong, Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Professor Ham explained, "El Ni?o is a phenomenon where the sea surface temperature of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean rises above normal. The term 'record-breaking El Ni?o' or 'super El Ni?o' is used when its intensity is much stronger than a typical El Ni?o (which involves a 0.5-degree Celsius rise)." He added, "There have been about 3 or 4 super El Ni?os, during which the sea surface temperature of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean rose by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius."

According to Professor Ham, El Ni?o typically occurs in cycles of 3 to 7 years, but research shows that with climate change, the frequency or intensity of super El Ni?os increases.

Professor Ham noted, "You may have heard a lot about (abnormal high temperatures and climate change), so it might not feel very immediate. But while we can go indoors and use air conditioning when it rains or gets hot, we need to consider whether natural ecosystems can adapt?and the answer is no."

He continued, "It is known that if the Earth's temperature rises by 2 degrees Celsius, 15 to 40% of species will become extinct," urging, "Please continue to pay attention and think about why these things are happening and what efforts we need to make to reduce them."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.