A US government weather forecaster on Thursday raised the likelihood that El Niño conditions would last into the Northern Hemisphere’s early spring to 85 percent, boosting the probability that drought-stricken California could see increased rains.
The Climate Prediction Center, a National Weather Service agency, last month forecast an 80 percent chance that conditions would last through early spring. The CPC still says there is a more than 90 percent chance that El Niño conditions would last through the Northern Hemisphere winter.
The new forecast marginally raises the risk that the El Niño phenomenon, the warming of Pacific sea-surface temperatures, will unleash a period of extreme and potentially damaging weather across the globe.
