‘El Nino can trigger drought, heavy rains’

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has warned that the oceanic warming phenomenon, El Nino, would continue into winter, causing drought and affecting the crop yield.

“We can’t tell whether or not El Nino will continue until spring, but we can say that there is a higher chance of it continuing in the winter,” JMA forecaster Ikuo Yoshikawa said on Wednesday.

According to the bureau, the weather pattern first appeared between June and August and continued into November.

El Nino is characterized by the warming of surface waters in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, which is connected with drought in Southeast Asia and Australia and heavy rains in South America.

The atmospheric disturbances threaten the yields of agricultural crops, including rice, wheat and sugar.

Last week, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology announced that climate models suggest El Nino weather conditions would occur over the next three months, although linked weather patterns are already being observed.

This comes as the US weather forecaster also estimated a 65-percent chance of El Nino conditions during the Northern Hemisphere winter and into spring.

The weather pattern is the first El Nino to occur since 2010.