BEIJING - China – grappling with one of its coldest Decembers on record – will likely have to brace itself for another round of scorching heat and an increase in extreme weather in 2024 due to the El Nino weather phenomenon, a senior climate expert said.

2023 has seen China lurch from some of its hottest temperatures logged since 1850 to a harsh cold snap that froze many parts of the country for close to a fortnight earlier in December.

“2024 may be hotter, and it could also be a year when extreme weather may become more frequent and powerful,” Mr Zhou Bing, China’s National Climate Centre chief expert, was quoted as saying in a report by state broadcaster CCTV.

This past summer saw Beijing bake in record heat, while a remote township in the country’s arid north-west logged a day of 52 deg C – the hottest on record for China.

Typhoons also brought record-breaking rainfall in China’s north, causing widespread flooding.

El Nino refers to a climate phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years, in which waters near the equator in the Pacific become warmer than normal, leading to heavy rainfall, storms or droughts in some parts of the world.

2023’s El Nino began in June and has set new temperature highs around the world.

Weather experts predict El Nino could fade between April and June 2024, but as its effects take months to materialise, there could be more temperature records broken in 2024. REUTERS