Met Office: This year's El Niño phenomenon may be the strongest in a century

(Central News Agency, London, comprehensive foreign news reports on the 21st) The British Meteorological Office predicted today that this year's El Nino phenomenon will be the strongest in more than a century, and sea surface temperatures may rise to "unheard of" levels.

Agence France-Presse reported that the El Niño phenomenon can be determined when sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific are 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than the baseline average. This will trigger changes in global wind direction, air pressure and rainfall patterns, and push up overall global temperatures.

"We expect this to be the strongest El Niño event in more than a hundred years," Adam Scaife, the Met Office's director of long-range forecasts, told the BBC. He called it an "unprecedented event" and said: "We have never seen such a strong El Niño signal in our forecasts."

Scheffey pointed out that this abnormally high temperature, "currently nearly 2 degrees Celsius higher," will have a particularly strong impact on the entire tropical region. "We expect very severe droughts in South America and the Western Pacific."

Temperatures in the region are currently about 2.6 degrees Celsius above the 30-year rolling average, according to climate information platform Climate Brink's dashboard.

"These are not short-term weather forecasts. We are talking about very long-term and persistent conditions. This has well-known implications for other systems, including food and food security," said Schiff, a physicist who specializes in climate models.