A strengthening El Niño in the Pacific Ocean is expected to make this fall a warmer one across the United States, says a new federal forecast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center released outlook maps to show what areas are more likely to have above, below, or near-normal conditions from September to November. The forecast says the northwest and the Rocky Mountains are most likely to see higher-than-normal temperatures this autumn, but much of the country is trending to be warmer than usual. Forecasters say there is more than a 90 percent chance the climate pattern will become a “very strong” event during the fall and winter months, adding that El Niño’s influence on weather patterns is not expected to weaken in the coming months. The climate pattern, which causes unusually warm surface water in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, has already been credited with the lack of significant activity in the tropics so far this hurricane season.
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