The Crisis Management Organization (CMO) recently sent a letter to 14 committees and provincial director generals of the organization asking them to be prepared for early winter.
Morteza Akbarpour, deputy head of the CMO said, “After forecasts of a strong El Nino system that would cause severe frost with heavy wintry showers, the organization circulated a directive with 22 provisions, urging all provinces to gear up possibly for one of the strongest ever El Nino effects,” ISNA quoted him as saying.
The circular was sent a few days after Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian in a confidential letter, issued a warning of an El Nino weather system that is expected to hit the country in winter with torrents of rain and cause flooding and freezing temperatures.
Akbarpour did not elaborate on the minister’s letter, but said in the CMO directive municipalities have been instructed to clean up rivers and waterways, in particular urban areas, as accumulation of solid waste can cause flooding.
“We are also planning to install ‘dual-fueled’ heating systems in hospitals, schools, bakeries and other places that provide public services. The system is less dependent on gas.”
Climate experts are now all but certain that an “El Nino cycle” is underway that could potentially be one of the strongest since 1950.
El Nino is seen as one of the three key climate patterns that could lead to changes in global temperature.
It occurs when the waters of the Pacific Ocean become exceptionally warm and distort weather patterns around the world.
