The complex El Nino weather pattern, which can bring disastrous heavy rainfall and long droughts to countries around the Pacific — from Peru to Indonesia and Australia — will probably emerge again in 2020, researchers have predicted.
An international team of scientists forecast an 80 percent chance next year of an El Nino, which occurs when sea-surface temperatures rise substantially above normal in the east-central equatorial Pacific.
This week they said their model — which uses an algorithm that draws on analysis of links between changing air temperatures at a network of grid points across the Pacific region — could predict an El Nino at least a year ahead.