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Aussie Scientists Claim Substantial El Ni????(R)????o Now Likely 05-20-15 | News

Aussie Scientists Claim Substantial El Niño Now Likely

The thresholds that the Australian Bureau of Meteorology uses in predicting the significance of an El Niño event differ from those used by U.S. forecasters.

The debate on whether or not El Niño has appeared in 2015, and how significant it will be, continued on its volatile path with the announcement by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology that certain thresholds have been met, which prompted the agency to officially forecast a "substantial" event for this year according to a report by L'Agence France-Presse.

Forecasters at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which earlier this year signaled that El Niño had started, have upped the likelihood that El Niño will continue through the summer to 90 percent but are still not ready to predict a sizable event, saying that current statistical models are in "the range of a weak event," and pointing out that the Australian agency has different thresholds.

Other experts say differently with comments like "quite a substantial El Nino event," and "certainly the models aren't predicting a weak event," as reported by L'Agence France-Presse.

The NOAA does allow that "the good chance that this El Niño will last into winter does tilt the odds towards the expected temperature and precipitation impacts."