Panama Canal begins reducing crossings due to El Niño

The Panama Canal is decreasing the number of ships traversing its waters due to a drought sparked by the El Niño weather event. The Panama Canal Authority announced that low water levels in the lakes that supply the canal have necessitated this reduction. Initially, 36 vessels were permitted to pass through daily, but this will be reduced to 32 by mid-September.

Panama has declared a nationwide emergency over El Niño, a weather pattern affecting the Pacific Ocean that is altering winds, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, and global temperatures. This year's El Niño is predicted to be the strongest in four decades, although it has not yet reached its peak. Central America is grappling with a severe drought, leading Honduras and El Salvador to also declare emergencies.

The canal, handling 5% of global maritime trade and about 40% of US container traffic, has already taken other water-saving measures, such as lowering the maximum draft for large ships. In 2023, El Niño led to the canal authority reducing the daily crossings to 22 vessels. On Thursday, the World Meteorological Organization declared a potentially exceptional El Niño warming event now firmly established in the tropical Pacific and expected to strengthen into a very strong El Niño over the coming months, continuing to intensify through autumn and peaking by the end of 2026.

The WMO notes that El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon, not caused by human-induced climate change, but this event is occurring against a backdrop of an already warmer planet and unusually warm oceans.