{"id":12800,"date":"2026-10-31T14:16:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T14:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=12800"},"modified":"2026-10-31T14:16:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T14:16:44","slug":"el-nino-and-ghana-heat-food-prices-and-the-2028-power-risk-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=12800","title":{"rendered":"El Ni\u00f1o and Ghana: heat, food prices and the 2028 power risk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>11 Minute, 1 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>


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A very strong El Ni\u00f1o is building in the Pacific, and Ghana will feel it in stages: a hotter, drier dry season from late November, the most dangerous heat of the year between February and April, a 2027 rainy season that could disappoint or overflow, and a test for hydropower that arrives only in 2028.<\/p>\n

That is the picture in a 31-page advisory<\/a> the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) published on 30 October, revised after a scientific review by its Governing Board. <\/p>\n

GMet presents its findings as \u201cprobabilistic assessments of climate risk rather than deterministic predictions\u201d, and it is careful about what it does not know. This is what it does say.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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96%<\/span>chance this El Ni\u00f1o reaches “very strong” by November\u2013January, according to NOAA<\/span><\/p>\n

+1.7\u00b0C<\/span>NOAA’s official reading for July\u2013September, and still rising<\/span><\/p>\n

Feb\u2013Apr<\/span>when heat stress is expected to peak, especially in the north<\/span><\/p>\n

2028<\/span>the year El Ni\u00f1o’s risk to hydropower lands<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A fever in the Pacific<\/h2>\n

How strong this El Ni\u00f1o is, and how long it will last<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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El Ni\u00f1o is the warm phase of a natural cycle in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. When the ocean there warms well above normal, it shifts thunderstorms, winds and rainfall across the tropics, and the effects reach West Africa. <\/p>\n

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center declared El Ni\u00f1o conditions in June. <\/p>\n

On its official index the event reached +1.7\u00b0C above normal in July\u2013September, up from +1.4\u00b0C a season earlier, and weekly readings had climbed to about +3.4\u00b0C by the week of 21 October.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n