NASA has released a reminder that the El Niño is big, and that weather is likely to be anything but normal this winter.
Maps published by the NASA Earth Observatory show that oceans are getting close to replicating the 1997-98 El Niño, which has been called the climate event of the century.
Ocean temperatures are the most common metric to define the El Niño, but ocean heights are important. Red indicates where sea levels are higher than normal while blue shows areas where sea levels are lower than normal. Both El Niños show sea level anomalies of up to 8 inches across the eastern tropical Pacific.
In the past few years, the fringe of sea ice that surrounds Antarctica has reached record high levels, in contrast to the declines in the Arctic. But this year, the end-of-winter peak in Antarctica has been lower. Again, scientists say El Niño is the likely reason.
With each month, 2015 is edging closer to becoming the warmest year on record for the planet. NASA puts the chances of that happening at 93 percent, and NOAA puts the chances at 97 percent.
The Journal