El Niño scorching heatwave threatens severe floods and drought as people urged 'prepare'

A warning of record-breaking heat has been issued as the weather phenomenon El Niño looms.

A World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Professor insisted that the world “should prepare” for El Niño, which can trigger more extreme weather and climate events, including severe rainfall and drought, depending on the region.

Professor Taalas said that the world faces an 80 per cent chance of an El Niño event developing between July and September. The WMO chief also warned that the development of El Niño will “most likely lead to a new spike in global heating and increase the chance of breaking temperature records”

El Niño can affect our weather significantly. El Niño is a climate pattern that occurs in the Pacific Ocean, characterized by a warming of the sea surface temperature in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. This warming typically occurs every 2-7 years and can last for several months to a year or more.

A cow searches for something to eat or drink at a dried out ranch near Manor in 2011 as drought hit (AP)

It can mean areas in the northern US and Canada are dryer and warmer than usual. But in the US Gulf Coast and Southeast, these periods are wetter than usual and have increased flooding.

Josh Willis is a Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California told Earth.com : "We’ll be watching this El Niño like a hawk. If it’s a big one, the globe will see record warming, but here in the Southwest US we could be looking at another wet winter, right on the heels of the soaking we got last winter.”

Cars stranded as heavy rain hits Tulsa in Oklahoma in 2015 - El Nino threatens more severe floods (AP)

The US-European satellite Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich has detected early signs of a potential El Niño event across the equatorial Pacific Ocean. It has detected the presence of so-called 'Kelvin Waves'; waves of warmed water associated with higher sea levels.

As water expands when it warms, regions with warmer waters generally experience higher sea levels.

El Niño events can have significant impacts on agriculture, fisheries, and other industries, as well as on natural ecosystems.Warmer water causes bleaching in coral reefs leaving them at greater risk of starvation.

El Nino describes unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean (Douglas Sacha)

THE WMO added that there is no indication so far of the strength or duration of the upcoming potential El Niño, and that no two El Niño events are the same, which is why close monitoring will be needed to pinpoint the impacts.

The term “El Niño” (Spanish for “the boy”) was originally used by fishermen off the coast of Peru and Ecuador to refer to a warm ocean current that appeared around Christmas time.