Stronger El Niño, long droughts seen

A stronger El Niño has been observed as climate experts and agencies get closer to a consensus that points to long droughts associated with the worsening phenomenon, according to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US NOAA).

The US NOAA said in its latest monthly advisory that higher-than-average sea surface temperatures continued to build up over the past month.

“Nearly all [climate forecasting] models predict El Niño to continue into the Northern Hemisphere winter 2015-16, with many multimodel averages predicting a strong event at its peak strength,” the agency said.

“There is a greater than 90-percent chance that El Niño will continue through (this winter), and around an 80-percent chance it will last into early spring 2016,” it said.

In a blog post discussing the NOAA’s latest El Niño assessment, Emily Becker, a scientist contractor working with the US Climate Prediction Center, noted that the Weather Channel has attracted attention by naming winter storms.

“Tropical storms and hurricanes have been given names since the early 1950s, which helps to clarify communications,” Becker said. “I propose we do name [El Niño events] starting this year.”

She said El Niño names should carry a theme, particularly action movie stars.