El Nino is back and expected to wreak havoc on weather this year

Australian scientists forecast a “substantial” El Nino weather phenomenon for 2015, potentially spelling deadly and costly climate extremes, after officially declaring its onset in the tropical Pacific. El Nino had been expected last year when record-breaking temperatures made 2014 the hottest in more than a century. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said while the thresholds were not met until now it was expected to be a significant event. The Japan Meteorological Agency also confirmed the phenomenon had begun and forecast it would continue into late 2015.

Certainly the models aren’t predicting a weak event. They are predicting a moderate-to-strong El Nino event. So this is a proper El Nino event, this is not a weak one or a near miss as we saw last year.

David Jones, from the bureau’s climate information services branch

The El Nino phenomenon can cause havoc for farmers and global agricultural markets, hitting economies heavily dependent on the land. The last El Nino five years ago had a major impact with monsoons in Southeast Asia, droughts in southern Australia, the Philippines and Ecuador, blizzards in the United States, heatwaves in Brazil and killer floods in Mexico.

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