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Intense El Niño could disrupt rainfall and drought patterns worldwide
The expected shift in weather comes as NOAA uses sustained tropical Pacific sea surface temperature thresholds to determine when El Niño is occurring.
OilPrice reports that the world is expected to experience an extremely intense El Niño event this year, with warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific that can unsettle typical weather patterns.
The outlet says the event could bring heavy rainfall in some regions while contributing to severe drought in others, with the broader effect of exacerbating extreme weather conditions.
According to OilPrice, El Niño can also trigger higher water levels in the eastern Pacific, and in some cases has been linked to more severe weather events such as hurricanes.
OilPrice adds that El Niño is declared when sustained ocean heat reaches a threshold in the Niño 3 and Niño 4 region, with NOAA relying on a three-month average sea surface temperature metric to determine whether the event is occurring.