A strong El Niño system churning its way across the Pacific toward the U.S., so strong it's earned a "Godzilla" nickname, shows no sign of weakening, NASA scientists say.
An evidence in the latest satellite imagery that shows the extent of warmer-than-normal water along the equator in the Pacific — which, in most El Niño events, stretches from the South America coast eastward to the international dateline — is even more expansive, reaching all the way to well west of the dateline, the space agency says.
Weather chaos triggered by the 2015 El Niño has already been seen in many parts of the world, and the United States will feel its effects in the next few months, forecasters say.
Images from the U.S./European Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite reveal a striking similarity between this El Niño and one from December 1997, and in both cases, the results have large and extremely powerful weather consequences, scientists say.
The chief result is an alteration of atmospheric jet stream path, which affects storm tracks and intensities all over the globe, they explain.
In the U.S., that's likely to mean several months of cool and wet conditions across the southern regions of the country, while northern U.S. states will see relatively warm and dry conditions, forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say.
In 2014, weather scientists said they were "teased" by an El Niño that wavered on and off.
"But in early 2015, atmospheric conditions changed, and El Niño steadily expanded in the central and eastern Pacific," says Josh Willis, a Jason project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"Although the sea surface height signal in 1997 was more intense and peaked in November of that year, in 2015, the area of high sea levels is larger," he says. "This could mean we have not yet seen the peak of this El Niño."
This El Niño has the potential to be among the three strongest episodes measured since 1950, researchers say.
One possible bright side of a "Godzilla" El Niño is relief from the ongoing drought affecting California and Western U.S. states, experts say.
"The water story for much of the American West over most of the past decade has been dominated by punishing drought," says climatologist Bill Patzert at JPL, noting that levels in the region's reservoirs have dropped to record or near-record lows.
Groundwater tables have fallen dangerously low in a number of areas, he adds.
"Now we're preparing to see the flip side of nature's water cycle — the arrival of steady, heavy rains and snowfall," he says.
However, El Niños — even strong ones — can't be considered drought-busters, he cautions.
"Over the long haul, big El Niños are infrequent and supply only seven percent of California's water," he noted.
