Ocean Warming Hints at El Nino’s Return

Climatologists are monitoring a warming of the Pacific Ocean that they fear could be a harbinger of a new El Nino, the phenomenon that disrupted weather worldwide three years ago and destroyed millions of dollars in property along California’s coast.

Such a warming in the mid-Pacific is now under way, accompanied by heavier than normal rainfall and a shift eastward in the areas of the Pacific with the warmest waters, the U.S. Climate Analysis Center said in a statement issued to meteorologists last week.

“This marks the first time since the early stages of the 1982-83 (El Nino) that the warmest equatorial water has shifted eastward,” the statement added.

But the agency did not predict the onset of an El Nino, and said that despite the mid-Pacific warming, sea temperatures in waters nearer South America appear to be close to normal.

The Climate Analysis Center issued a warning of a potential new El Nino last March, but by June experts said the danger appeared to be shrinking.