According to an updated forecast
released on Thursday by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Adminisration (NOAA).
NOAA also reported that there is a greater than 90 percent chance of El Niño
lasting through the upcoming winter.
What is El Niño?
At irregular
intervals (roughly every 3-6 years), the sea surface temperatures in the
Pacific Ocean along the equator become warmer or cooler than normal. These
anomalies are the hallmark of El Niño and La Niña climate cycles,
which can influence weather patterns across the globe.
El Niño means The
Little Boy, or Christ Child in Spanish. El Niño was originally
recognized by fishermen off the coast of South America in the 1600s, with the
appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean. The name was chosen
based on the time of year (around December) during which these warm waters
events tended to occur.
The term El
Niño refers to the large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to a
periodic warming in sea surface temperatures across the central and
east-central Equatorial Pacific.
Typical El Niño
effects are likely to develop over North America during the upcoming winter
season. Those include warmer-than-average temperatures over western and central
Canada, and over the western and northern United States. Wetter-than-average
conditions are likely over portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida, while
drier-than-average conditions can be expected in the Ohio Valley and the
Pacific Northwest. The presence of El Niño can significantly influence weather
patterns, ocean conditions, and marine fisheries across large portions of the
globe for an extended period of time.
El Niño, warmer
than average waters in the Eastern equatorial Pacific (shown in orange on the
map), affects weather around the world.
Resource : The Weather Channel
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