El Nino, a pattern that can greatly change weather in the Asia-Pacific region, will last at least until spring 2007, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Climate Prediction Center (CPC). The CPC, an agency of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, said that El Nino will stay for the remainder of 2006 and into the northern hemisphere spring of 2007. El Nino is an abnormal warming of waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean which causes dramatic swings in weather from Asia to South America, including severe drought in some areas and devastating flooding in others. The CPC said typical El Nino effects are likely to develop over North America during the winter. Such effects include warmer-than-average temperatures over western and central Canada and over the western and northern United States, wetter-than-average conditions over portions of the U.S. Gulf coast and Florida, and drier-than-average conditions in the U.S. midwest and the Pacific northwest. Mild weather over Canada and the northern United States would affect the world s top heating-oil market. According to the report, drier-than-average weather would be likely during November to March over most of Malaysia, Indonesia, some of the tropical North Pacific, northern South America, and southeastern Africa. The CPC predicted wetter-than-average conditions over equatorial East Africa, central South America, and along the coasts of Ecuador and northern Peru.
