El Niño weather pattern is likely to fade away in the next month or two, U.S. weather service predicts
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July 11 (Reuters) - The El Niño weather pattern is likely to transition into ENSO-neutral conditions in the next month or two, a U.S. government weather forecaster said on Thursday.
ENSO-neutral refers to those periods in which neither El Niño nor La Niña is present, according to the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center (CPC).
The ENSO-neutral conditions are expected to continue through the northern hemisphere fall and winter, the CPC said in its monthly forecast.
"During June, El Niño was reflected in the continued presence of above average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) across the central equatorial Pacific Ocean. However, SST anomalies across most of the eastern Pacific decreased during the month," the weather forecaster added.
Last month, it had pegged the chances of the El Niño weather pattern continuing through the fall and winter a bit lower at 50% to 55%.
The El Niño pattern brings a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific every few years and was linked to crop damage, fires and flash floods before it went away in 2016.
(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman and Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)
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