The current El Niño episode, which developed in June 2023, peaked between November and January.

With its arrival, maximum values of about 2.0 degrees Celsius (°C) above the average sea surface temperature between 1991 and 2020 were recorded in the eastern-central tropical Pacific.

Therefore, it became one of the five strongest El Niño events in history, although it was weaker than the 1997-1998 and 2015-2016 events.

According to the international agency, although this process is gradually weakening, its consequences will exacerbate the heat trapped by greenhouse emissions and affect the global climate in the second year of its development, in this case, in 2024.

As a result, the persistent but weakened El Niño and the above-normal sea surface temperatures in much of the world’s oceans are expected to cause above-normal weather in nearly all land areas and influence regional precipitation patterns over the next three months, the WMO stated.

In addition, there is about a 60-percent chance of El Niño persisting during March and May and an 80-percent chance of neutral conditions; that is, neither El Niño nor La Niña, from April to June.

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