Scientists have identified an eight million square kilometre region of water in the South Pacific that is warming unusually fast, disrupting normal weather patterns and contributing to South America’s long megadrought.
The region is dubbed the ‘Southern Blob’ and according to an article published in the Journal of Climate, the phenomenon has a natural origin but has intensified over the last forty years due to global warming.
Lead author of the article, Rene Garreud said in the long term, the world is moving towards drier and warmer conditions and the drought can be eased by natural variability but we will never go back to the ‘old normal’