(Reuters) – There is no active El Niño or La Niña at present and there is a 78% chance of neutral weather conditions persisting through June to August in the northern hemisphere this year, a U.S. government weather forecaster said on Thursday.
The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC), in its monthly forecast, also pegged the chances of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-neutral weather conditions at 50% for the September-November season.
ENSO-neutral conditions refer to those periods in which neither El Niño nor La Niña are present, often coinciding with the transition between the two weather patterns, according to the CPC.
The El Niño pattern brings a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific every few years, and is the opposite of La Niña.
(Reporting by Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
