(Reuters) — The U.S. government predicts a 65 percent chance that an El Nino weather pattern will emerge during the northern hemisphere spring this year.
“However, given the timing and that a weak event is favoured, significant global impacts are not anticipated during the remainder of winter, even if conditions were to form,” the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) added in its monthly forecast.
Last month, the weather forecaster pegged the chances of the El Nino emerging at 60 percent during spring 2019.
The last El Nino, a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific that typically occurs every few years, occurred from around 2015 to 2016 and caused weather-related crop damage, fires and flash floods.
For the Canadian Prairies, El Nino effects typically bring warmer temperatures.
