© picture alliance / Pacific Press | Edd Castro
The U.S. weather service NOAA estimates a whopping 82 percent chance that El Niño will develop between May and July.
The phenomenon, associated with higher temperatures worldwide, would persist with a 96 percent chance until December 2026 or even February 2027, according to climatologists at the U.S. meteorological service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The return fuels fears of new extreme heat, especially since the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has already warned of a possible "super-El Niño". The probability of this being strong to very strong is now more than 50 percent.
Scientists worry about the impact that this could have on global weather patterns: there is a growing chance that 2027 will then be the warmest year on record, the BBC reports. The last "very strong" El Niño occurred in 2015-2016: the average rise in sea-surface water temperature in the Niño3.4 region over a three-month period (November, December, January) was then 2.4°C.
Picture: © picture alliance / Pacific Press | Edd Castro