Pending El Nino to blame for odd California weather

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published a side-by-side map comparison of the strongest El Nino on record versus the one that is developing now.

The image, taken from the agency’s NOAA View Data Exploration Tool on their website, shows unusually warm ocean temperatures stretching from Alaska down to Peru.

Mounting evidence suggests that an El Nino forming in the Pacific is to blame for the odd weather.

Stats from Nasa confirmed this Wednesday that June was globally the warmest on record.

The bureau noted that ocean temperatures in all key areas used to monitor for El Nino have been more than 33.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) above average for 10 successive weeks, which is two weeks longer than the record in 1997.

Earlier this month, Japan’s weather bureau said the El Nino was continuing, reiterating that there was a strong possibility it would continue into winter, while a U.S. government weather forecaster warned it was likely to last another nine months.

This aerial photo shows the collapsed elevated section of Interstate 10, Monday, July 20, 2015, in Desert Center, Calif. All traffic along one of the major highways connecting California and Arizona was blocked indefinitely when the bridge over a desert wash collapsed during a major storm, and the roadway in the opposite direction sustained severe damage.

Australia has already slashed its production forecast for wheat, cotton and other agricultural commodities in fiscal 2015/16 as the weather phenomenon grips the country and dries out farmland for the second time in five years.