Reuters AlertNet Lite - U.N. agency sees El Nino stretching to early 2007

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U.N. agency sees El Nino stretching to early 2007

01 Dec 2006 12:51:05 GMT
Source: Reuters

GENEVA, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A moderate "El Nino" event has taken hold in the tropical Pacific, threatening to trigger further weather disruption into the first quarter of 2007, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Friday.

The United Nations weather agency reported that October sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific were 1.0 to 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than usual, and would likely remain unusually warm over the next three months.

While the current El Nino -- a term describing abnormal warming of Pacific waters -- was forecast to stay "moderate" in intensity, WMO expert Rupa Kumar Kolli said it had the potential to cause erratic weather patterns worldwide.

"A moderate El Nino does not mean that the impacts will be moderate," he told a news conference.

Australia and Indonesia have already suffered severe drought conditions linked to the higher Pacific temperatures, which Kumar Kolli said might also explain the surprisingly mild Atlantic hurricane season this year.

"An El Nino is usually associated with a weaker hurricane season," he said.

Past occurrences of El Nino have been linked to droughts across Southeast Asia, heavy rainfall in parts of South America and East Africa, and mild winter temperatures in the northern United States and Canada.

An extreme El Nino in 1997-98 killed hundreds of people across the Asian-Pacific region and dealt a blow to their economies at the height of the Asian financial crisis.

The periodic weather phenomenon was first noticed by 19th century fishermen in South America.

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