NOAA: This year's El Niño could be historically strong

This El Niño is "significant and strengthening", with the potential to become the most powerful ever recorded, according to the latest update from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center yesterday.

"There is a greater than 90 percent chance that El Niño will continue through Northern Hemisphere winter 2015-16, and around an 85 percent chance it will last into early spring 2016, the NOAA said in a statement.

El Niño will likely contribute to a below normal Atlantic hurricane season, and to above-normal hurricane seasons in both the central and eastern Pacific hurricane basins, it said.

El Niño is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific. It is an oscillation of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather around the globe.

Among these consequences are increased rainfall across the southern tier of the US and in Peru, which has caused destructive flooding, and drought in the West Pacific, sometimes associated with devastating brush fires in Australia.
  China.org.cn
14/8/15
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