Another El Nino is developing in the equatorial Pacific Ocean

The U.S. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration has said that an El Nino is developing in the Pacific Ocean. El Nino is a sharp rise in the ocean s temperature that causes abnormal weather patterns to develop almost world wide.

An El Nino can cause floods and drought as far as South Africa and trigger severe winter storms in California. In extreme cases, El Nino can cause searing drought in Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia while spawning rampant flooding in Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia.

The most severe El Nino occurred in 1997/98, and in its aftermath, killed hundreds of people in 1997/98 and caused billions of dollars in damages.

The U.S. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration will be monitoring this rather closely.

Michael Berglin