SYDNEY, April 26 (Reuters) – Seven out of eight models monitored by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) now indicate that a threshold for a La Nina weather pattern will be breached by September, the weather agency said on Tuesday.
The increasing prospect of a La Nina comes as the strongest El Nino in nearly 20 years – which has been blamed for crop damage, forest fires and flash floods – starts to subside.
La Nina is the opposite of an El Nino, which is characterized by warmer waters in the tropical Pacific. Severe La Ninas are also linked to floods, droughts and hurricanes.
The Australia’s bureau’s individual models still showed a large spread between neutral and La Nina scenarios, the bureau said.
As a result of the variances, the agency kept the chance of La Nina at 50 percent.
The bureau said El Nino-related climate indicators have eased over the last two weeks but remain above neutral levels.
