22/06/2026
ITS ALL ABOUT LAE: Read👇👇👇👇
Why Lae Stays Green During El Niño
By Malum Nalu
I am not a scientist, but having lived through and covered Papua New Guinea’s last two major El Niño events in 1997 and 2015, I have always been fascinated by one particular observation.
While much of the country suffered through devastating drought, Lae continued to receive rain.
As a journalist at the time, I covered the impacts of both El Niño events. I reported on rivers drying up, food gardens failing, bushfires raging across the Highlands and communities struggling to find drinking water. The same story unfolded again in 2015 as El Niño tightened its grip on the country.
Yet in Lae, rain continued to fall.
It was not business as usual. Rainfall was probably lower than normal, but compared to many other parts of Papua New Guinea, Lae remained remarkably green.
This contrast always intrigued me.
Why did it seem to rain in Lae when so much of the rest of the country was suffering through drought?
Over the years, I have put that question to many meteorologists and scientists.
Their answer is almost always the same: the Huon Gulf.
Lae’s location on the shores of the Huon Gulf gives it a natural advantage. The gulf provides a constant source of warm, moisture-laden air. Prevailing winds carry this moist air inland toward the mountains behind Lae. When the airflow reaches the steep slopes of the Finisterre Range and the Saruwaged Range on the Huon Peninsula, it cannot continue moving through the terrain at the same level, so it is forced to rise up the mountainsides. As the air rises, it expands and cools, clouds form and rain falls.
Meteorologists call this “orographic rainfall”. Lae residents simply call it “Rainy Lae”.
While El Niño disrupts normal weather patterns across much of Papua New Guinea, Lae’s unique geography often provides a degree of protection from the worst impacts. The city continues to receive moisture from the sea and benefits from the natural rain-making effect of its surrounding mountains.
This does not mean Lae is immune from drought. No place is. But history shows that it often fares better than many other parts of the country during El Niño years.
The phenomenon is a reminder that Papua New Guinea is a land of extraordinary geographical and climatic diversity. Conditions in one part of the country can be completely different from those in another.
From the dry savannahs of the south to the rainforests of the north, from the islands to the Highlands, our country contains an extraordinary variety of weather systems. What happens in Port Moresby may be completely different from what happens in Lae. What affects the Highlands may have little impact on the Huon Gulf.
For those of us who witnessed and reported on both the 1997 and 2015 El Niño events, the contrast remains striking. While much of the nation endured severe drought, Lae continued to receive the blessings of rain carried in from the Huon Gulf.
Sometimes nature gives certain places a helping hand.
Lae appears to be one of them.
And every time I see rain clouds gathering over the Huon Gulf during a drought elsewhere in the country, I am reminded of the answer that meteorologists and scientists have given me time and again:
“It’s the Huon Gulf.” (And that’s me sitting on an outrigger canoe in my village of Laukanu, Salamaua, Huon Gulf, earlier this year).
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