Experts Link East Africa Drought to La Niña in the Pacific

22 August 2011

A refugee woman and her child from Somalia sit with their belongings outside Ifo refugee camp in Dadaab, near the Kenya-Somalia border

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

East Africa's drought is the worst in sixty years. Scientists say the dry conditions in the Horn of Africa are at least partly the result of an event half a world away.

The event is called La Niña, which means "little girl" in Spanish. A La Niña begins when waters become cooler than normal in the eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator. Changes in wind currents can then affect weather around the world. A related event, called an El Niño, happens when the waters become unusually warm.

La Niñas and El Niños happen about every three to five years. The latest La Niña began in July of last year and ended in May. The conditions can last for up to two years.

Wassila Thiaw studies Africa for the Climate Prediction Center at the National Weather Service in the United States. With a La Niña, Mr. Thiaw says the easterly winds that are supposed to bring moisture into East Africa are reduced.

WASSILA THIAW: “There was less moisture coming into East Africa and therefore rainfall is reduced.”

Starting late last year, rains that were supposed to fall over Somalia, southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya failed. That part of the Horn of Africa has a second rainy season from March through May. Mr. Thiaw says that one failed, too, but for different reasons.