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          WMO: El Nino Strengthening, Will Be Among Biggest on Record

   by Reuters

   The current El Nino weather pattern, a phenomenon associated with
   extreme droughts, storms and floods, is expected to strengthen before
   the end of the year and become one of the strongest on record, the U.N.
   weather agency said on Monday.

   The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said this El Nino already
   was "strong and mature" and the biggest in more than 15 years.

   The phenomenon is driven by warm surface water in the eastern Pacific
   Ocean, and this time three-month averages will peak at more than 2
   degrees Celsius above normal, putting this El Nino in the same league
   as those seen in 1972-73, 1982-83 and 1997-98, the WMO said.

   WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said the world was better prepared
   for this El Nino than ever before, and the worst-affected countries
   were planning for the impact on agriculture, fisheries, water and
   health, and implementing disaster management campaigns to save lives
   and minimize economic damage.

   "However, this event is playing out in uncharted territory. Our planet
   has altered dramatically because of climate change, the general trend
   toward a warmer global ocean, the loss of Arctic sea ice and of more
   than a million square kilometers of summer snow cover in the northern
   hemisphere," the WMO statement quoted Jarraud as saying.

   "So this naturally occurring El Nino event and human-induced climate
   change may interact and modify each other in ways which we have never
   before experienced," said Jarraud in the statement. "Even before the
   onset of El Nino, global average surface temperatures had reached new
   records. El Nino is turning up the heat even further."

   The WMO did not predict when this El Nino would start to subside, but
   said they normally reach maximum strength between October and January,
   then persist through much of the first quarter.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/wmo-says-el-nino-strengthening-will-b
   e-among-biggest-on-record/3059993.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/wmo-says-el-nino-strengthening-will-be-among-biggest-on-record/3059993.html