El Nino Warming Growing Rapidly; Scientists Project 81% Change Of "Very Strong" - Highest Classification Possible
WASHINGTON (AP) — An intensifying El Nino, nature’s heat-releasing thermostat that spikes global temperatures, is heading to historically strong levels, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday.
In its monthly update, NOAA said this year’s El Nino, a natural warming of the equatorial Pacific that alters weather patterns across the globe, has an 81% chance of becoming “very strong” — the top category available — by fall. It should rank among the most intense El Ninos since the weather agency started tracking them in 1950.
Its biggest impacts — from droughts to downpours to heat waves — are likely to be most felt in the fall and winter, meteorologists said.
This El Nino, which formed only last month, already zipped past the weak stage and is now considered moderate with no indications of slowing its strengthening, the government forecast said. Ocean temperatures in key parts of the Pacific that help indicate the El Nino’s strength are at or near record highs for this time of year, partly because it comes on top of ocean warming from human-caused climate change, meteorologists said.
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