LOS ANGELES, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- El Nino-related temperature swings in the Pacific have become stronger than at any point measured in the preindustrial portion of a roughly 1,000-year record, a new study published Thursday in the journal Science has found.
The findings add to evidence that global warming may be changing the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a natural climate cycle that affects weather around the world.
The study found that ENSO variability in recent decades was more than 36 percent higher than during the preindustrial period, with the strongest increase occurring over roughly the past 40 years.
ENSO includes the warm El Nino phase and the cold La Nina phase. Both can shift rainfall and temperatures far beyond the Pacific, affecting drought, floods and agriculture in many parts of the world, the study said.
The recent increase was largely driven by more frequent and stronger El Nino events. The change also paralleled the rise in global temperatures, it added.
The findings come as a new El Nino develops in the tropical Pacific. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's climate prediction center said on Aug. 13 that El Nino was strengthening, with a greater than 90 percent chance of a very strong event during the Northern Hemisphere fall and winter of 2026-27.
The new Science study does not indicate that every future El Nino will be stronger. It said, however, that recent eastern Pacific ENSO variability exceeds the range found in the preindustrial centuries covered by the coral record. ■