Australian scientists announced Tuesday that the El Nino threshold had been reached for the first time in five years and they warn it could be substantial.
While the system will affect many parts of the world negatively with droughts or floods, its effect on Atlantic Canada will be welcome. Record snowfalls this past winter wreaked havoc across the Maritimes with many calling it an old fashioned winter, although very few remember ever seeing anything remotely like it. Even some businesses were forced to close down permanently due to financial losses from lack of traffic and expenses from record amounts of snow and power outages.
Atlantic Canadians will most likely remain skeptical concerning this El Nino since they were also informed of an El Nino for this past winter, however, it turned out to be a much milder El Nino than the one now developing in the Pacific.
According to an interview with CBC News, David Phillips, senior climatologist for Environment Canada says it will mean a “softer, more open” winter for not only eastern Canada, but the country as a whole. It also means that we will see fewer threats of hurricanes, and those that do form in the Atlantic should be less intense.
As of today, May 14, according to The Weather Network, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters state that the El Nino in the Pacific had strengthened and had spread eastward. They gave the system an 80 percent chance of remaining until the end of the year.
