El Nino, Asleep the Last 4 Years, Is Stirring, Weather Experts Say
Weather anomaly El Nino, blamed for searing droughts and devastating floods worldwide, is awakening from a four-year slumber, government weather experts said Thursday, but how hard it will hit is unknown.
Last seen in 1997-98, El Nino caused deadly droughts in Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia, and floods in Peru and Ecuador.
El Nino, which means “little boy” or the Christ child in Spanish, is an abnormal warming of waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean that usually occurs every four to five years and can last up to 18 months. First reported by Latin American fishermen, the weather phenomenon was usually seen around Christmas.
“It’s still too early to determine the potential strength of this El Nino . . . but it is likely these warming conditions in the tropical Pacific will continue until early 2003,” Conrad Lautenbacher, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a statement.
In January, NOAA predicted for the first time that an El Nino would likely occur this spring.
NOAA said it issued the forecast after seeing strengthening in a nascent warming trend in ocean surface temperatures off South America last month.
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