This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: It's already been an intense hurricane season in the Pacific Ocean—and there's still quite a ways to go. Tropical storms have spawned in what seems like assembly-line fashion in recent weeks, as El Niño conditions that emerged in June have caused waters to grow warmer than normal, setting off a chain of unusual weather around much of the world.
"It's ramping up to be perhaps the strongest El Niño on record," University of Miami hurricane expert Brian McNoldy said. The number of hurricanes in the eastern Pacific has already surpassed what occurs in a typical season. This week alone, Hurricane Polo drenched Mexico's Pacific coast as it seesaws between Category 4 and 5.
And in storm-weary Hawaii, there's the potential for catastrophic flooding from a growing Hurricane Nolo. During El Niño, low-level surface winds blowing from east to west across the Pacific are weakened or sometimes reversed. It causes a shift in the jet stream and drives record global heat, severe droughts, wildfires and shrinking water supplies.
El Ninos don't follow a regular schedule, occurring every two to seven years on average. McNoldy predicted that the current El Niño will peak during the coming winter but linger into 2027. "It doesn't turn off right away," he said.
While the focus is on the increased number of Pacific storms, El Ninos conversely curtail hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean: Tropical weather activity in the Atlantic has been virtually silent this year. Thanks to El Niño, both the eastern Pacific and the central Pacific have seen four more tropical storms than is normal to date with more than two months left in the hurricane season, said Matthew Rosencrans, lead hurricane season forecaster with NOAA's National Weather Service. From 1991 to 2020, there was an average of 15 named storms in the eastern Pacific per season, which runs from May 15 to Nov. 30.
But surpassing the yearly average in September? "That's a different story," Rosencrans said. What also sets this year's El Niño-fueled storms apart is that three Pacific hurricanes have reached Category 5 strength, tying a record set in 2002, also during an El Niño, he said.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
