WASHINGTON (AP) – Meteorologists see signs that the super El Nino is weakening ever so slightly, but they caution months will pass before people in the Americas will feel it.
The World Meteorological Organization said Thursday that El Nino has passed its peak based on specific temperature, wind, and atmospheric pressure conditions.
That’s technically true, but Michelle L’Heureux, lead El Nino forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center, said there’s a few months lag time before the changes affect the Americas.
El Nino is the occasional but natural warming of the central tropical Pacific which, along with changes in the atmosphere, alters weather patterns worldwide. It often brings more rain to California and parts of the U.S. West and South, warms temperatures globally a bit, and causes droughts elsewhere in the world.
In December and January, El Nino measurements showed it tied 1997-1998 for the strongest since records started being kept in 1950.