During the 1997–1998 El Niño, dry weather in Indonesia kept fires burning for months into the wet season because monsoon rains that would normally extinguish them did not arrive as expected.
Notes on verification
Multiple independent, credible sources (Scientific American, NOAA CPC, ScienceDirect peer-reviewed article, Smithsonian) corroborate the claim's core assertions about delayed monsoons prolonging fires during the 1997-98 El Niño. [tier=gold indep_score=0.988 clusters=4 claim_tier=notable]
Sources
- What You Need to Know about El Niño (seed:science_and_space)
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hellish-fires-in-indonesia-spread-health-climate-problems/ (corroboration)
- https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/assessments/assess_97/indo.html (corroboration)
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0273117703007361 (corroboration)
- https://forces.si.edu/elnino/exhibition_3c.html (corroboration)