Chances of El Nino would exceed 65 percent this year: US Climate Prediction Center

The US Climate Prediction Center on 5 May 2014 said that the chances of weather-altering El Nino will develop in Pacific Ocean. In its forecast it highlighted that El Nino would exceed from 50 percent to 65 percent.

El Nino is one part of Southern Oscillation and is caused due to an abnormal warming of surface ocean waters in the eastern tropical Pacific. On the other hand, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology in the second week of May 2014 also updated that El Nino development would be up to 70 percent.

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), El Nino effects are
• El Nino affects the atmosphere above it and changes the weather patterns around the globe
• El Nino effects leads to less rain in India, Australia and Central America in the summer
• Mild conditions across the northern US in the winter and a cooler summer
• More rain across the South

The last El Nino to form was in 2009 to 2010.

About El Nino and La Nina
El Nino is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific. La Nina is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific.

El Nino is an oscillation of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather around the globe. These are increased rainfall across the southern tier of the US and in Peru, which has caused destructive flooding and drought in the West Pacific, and sometimes associated with devastating brush fires in Australia.