UN weather body says El Ni?o set to intensify

This year's El Niño will intensify before peaking in December and is nearly 100% certain to last until February 2027, the World Meteorological Organization said in its monthly climate bulletin on Thursday, with sea surface temperatures set to break records.



"WMO forecasts indicate a near-100% likelihood that (El Niño) will persist through February 2027, potentially being one of the strongest since at least 1950," WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo said in a statement released with the bulletin.



The UN weather body said sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific, the region at the heart of El Niño phenomenon, were expected to reach a record 3.7 degrees Celsius (6.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal from October to December.



The forecast temperature anomaly is significantly higher than the previous record of 2.6C from November 2015 to January 2016, it said.



"The ocean it's drawing from is the warmest we've ever measured it. There is simply more heat available to release," Saulo said.