Forecasters say a powerful El Niño weather pattern is here and could strengthen later this year into one of the most formidable in decades. Its shifting winds could redirect trapped oceanic heat to California’s coast, bringing with it a cascade of torrential rain and warmer tides that endanger marine life.
During a press conference at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach Thursday, experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this year’s still-growing El Niño could be the strongest of the century, with a 63% chance to develop between November and January into one of the worst events since 1950.
El Niño is the name given to powerful shifts in Pacific Ocean winds and water temperatures that can transform global weather patterns, sparking droughts and heat waves, tropical storms and flooding. It can also harm or kill marine life, as weakened winds slow the upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water for plankton and send populations elsewhere for food.
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Experts say the current marine heat wave is about one-third the size of the 2015 “Super” El Niño, with nominally high temperatures and sequestered to Southern California’s coast, but it could build into a bona fide El Niño pattern this fall…