“We’re predicting that this El Niño could be among the strongest in the historical record dating back to 1950”, said Mike Halpert, deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
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Forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have upgraded their prediction for the global weather phenomenon known as El Niño, saying that all signs now suggest the pattern to be “significant and strengthening”. El Nino in 1997 was the strongest on record, measuring 2.3 on forecasters’ scales.
According to Southern California Public Radio’s KPCC, scientists believe PDO could be entering its “warm phase”, which means water temperature along the Pacific coast heats up while the larger ocean cools down. “If this lines up to its potential, this thing can bring a lot of floods, mudslides and mayhem”. El Nino (ehl NEEN’-yoh) is a heating of the equatorial Pacific that changes weather worldwide, mostly affecting the United States in winter.
El Nino, the warming trend in sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, has been strengthening lately, feeding speculation about the possibility of an above-normal-precipitation winter to loosen drought’s stranglehold.
Climatologists are putting greater bets on an El Nino and extending its likelihood into next spring.
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Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, said El Niño could soak Los Angeles and miss Northern California altogether. Currently, this year’s El Nino is at a 1.0, but it’s still climbing. “I just don’t want folks to think they don’t have to conserve because El Nino will save us, or to not understand that a strong El Nino has a downside”.
