Scientist details four signs of El Niño's arrival as it could begin any day
Topics: World News, Weather
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Getty stock image
Topics: World News, Weather
A scientist has highlighted some of the biggest signs of an imminent El Niño amid predictions of the phenomenon beginning.
El Niño is a naturally occurring phenomenon which hinges on the surface temperature of the ocean.
As the temperature rises this can have a huge knock-on effect on weather patterns, with the direct impact being extremely varied.
But the thing the effects have in common is that El Niño can lead to more occurrences of extreme weather, whether that's heavy rain and floods or droughts and wildfires.
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Although it's not caused by climate change, scientists think that the extreme weather effects of El Niño can be exacerbated by the effects of climate change.
There are four main signs that scientists watch for when looking for El Niño.
Michelle L’Heureux is a physical scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center in Maryland and heads up the ENSO team, which monitors El Niño and La Niña and provides updates on forecasting the phenomenon.
L’Heureux said: "We determine El Nino's arrival by monitoring the surface temperature departures across the east-central equatorial Pacific Ocean."
There are four main factors which L’Heureux said that they monitor, with the first and most important being the aforementioned surface temperature of the ocean.
But this isn't it, with another factor being the pressure, with high and low pressures having different effects on the weather and being a signal for any extreme weather that might be coming.
Another is the wind, with higher winds being one sign, and the final one being rainfall in the equatorial Pacific.
Signs are already there for an El Niño this year, but L’Heureux highlighted that 'Super El Niño' is not actually a formal term for NOAA, saying it 'does not have a 'super El Nino' definition', but that they do 'provide chances of different strengths, ranging from weak to very strong'.
At present, they noted in their latest update that there was 'still significant uncertainty' about how strong the El Niño could be.
However, they are expecting that it 'may form sometime during the May-July 2026 season'
So what happens if and when El Niño does arrive?
L'Heureux advised: "When we see features in both the ocean and atmosphere changing, we will declare the onset of El Nino in the form of an 'El Nino Advisory'."
El Niño can have a major impact on weather patterns around the world, so keeping track of if and when it may occur is extremely important.