As the current strong El Niño brewing in the Pacific Ocean shows no signs of waning, its effects could be as bad as those of 1998, the strongest on record, according to NASA.
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El Niño 2015 has already created weather chaos around the world. Over the next few months, forecasters expect the United States to feel its impacts as well. Yet, scientists still do not know precisely how the current El Niño will affect the country.
In the U.S., many of El Niño's biggest impacts are expected in early 2016. Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expect an El Niño-induced shift in weather patterns to begin in the near future, ushering in several months of relatively cool and wet conditions across the southern United States, and relatively warm and dry conditions over the north.
While no one can predict the exact timing or intensity of U.S. El Niño impacts, the flip-side of it is that for drought-stricken California and the U.S. West, it's expected to bring some relief - the arrival of steady, heavy rains and snowfall.
Currently, the El Niño weather phenomenon is experienced across the southern United States. A steady convoy of storms slammed most of California, moved east into the Southwest, drenched Texas and wreaked havoc along the Gulf Coast, particularly in Florida pumped up by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The latest satellite image captured by the U.S.-European Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) bears a striking resemblance to one from December 1997, the US space agency says, describing it "the signature of a big and powerful El Niño".
This year's El Niño has caused the warm water layer that is normally piled up around Australia and Indonesia to thin dramatically, while in the eastern tropical Pacific, the normally cool surface waters are blanketed with a thick layer of warm water.
This massive redistribution of heat causes ocean temperatures to rise from the central Pacific to the Americas. It has sapped Southeast Asia's rain in the process, reducing rainfall over Indonesia and contributing to the growth of massive wildfires that have blanketed the region in choking smoke.
El Niño is also implicated in Indian heat waves caused by delayed monsoon rains, as well as Pacific island sea level drops, widespread coral bleaching that is damaging coral reefs, droughts in South Africa, flooding in South America and a record-breaking hurricane season in the eastern tropical Pacific.
Around the world, production of rice, wheat, coffee and other crops has been hit hard by droughts and floods, leading to higher prices.
"Looking ahead to summer, El Niño could be followed by a La Niña, which could bring roughly opposite effects to the world's weather," cautioned JPL climatologist Bill Patzert. ■