'An unprecedented event': UK Met Office says this year's El Niño to be 'biggest for over a century'

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This year’s El Niño weather pattern will be the biggest in over a century, warming sea surface temperatures to an “unheard-of” level, Britain’s national weather agency predicted on Friday.

The El Niño weather pattern is declared when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise 0.5°C above the baseline average, triggering worldwide changes in winds, atmospheric pressure and rainfall patterns, and causing warmer global temperatures overall.

Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the Met Office, told the BBC that “We are expecting the biggest El Niño for over a century, peaking at something over three degrees — that is unheard-of in modern climate records.”

He called it “an unprecedented event”, adding that “I have never seen an El Niño signal this intense in our forecasts”.