Latest Report: El Niño Continues to Bulk Up in the Pacific — and It May Get a Boost From the Pacific's Surge of Cyclones

The forecast for how sea surface temperatures would vary from normal in the Pacific Ocean on July 9, 2015. The circled area of abnormally warm water is a hallmark of El Niño. (Source: ClimateReanlyzer.org/Climate Change Institute, University of Maine) The El Niño once regarded as "El Wimpo" is getting ever stronger, and it's likely to peak in late fall or early winter as one of the more brawny ones on record. "At this time, the forecaster consensus is in favor of a significant El Niño event," states the monthly assessment from the U.S. Climate Prediction Center, released today. "Overall, there is a greater than 90% chance that El Niño will continue through Northern Hemisphere winter 2015-16, and around an 80% chance it will last into early spring 2016," according to the report.