El Niño has arrived early, and it could shape up to be historically strong as it warms the tropical Pacific Ocean, possibly bringing with it some of the hottest weather in years, meteorologists announced June 11.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service (NWS) issued an El Niño advisory Thursday after announcing the warm climate pattern had developed a month before expected in the tropical Pacific.
AccuWeather’s long-range weather expert Paul Pastelok also reported on June 11 that El Niño had already started affecting ocean temperatures, a key indicator of the pattern’s arrival.
“The sea surface temperatures are quickly changing in the equatorial Pacific,” Pastelok wrote….