NASA predicts weather chaos in 2016 from strong El Nino

Wild weather has wreaked havoc across five continents this December and NASA says it is further proof that man-made climate change is contributing to more extreme weather.

Images provided by NASA satellites compare warm Pacific Ocean water temperatures from the strong El Nino in 1997 (right) and the current El Nino as of Dec. 27, 2015 (left). (NASA via AP) Source: AP

Extreme weather events around the world this month has been the result of the most powerful El Nino over the past 100 years, according to the US space agency NASA and meteorologists. 

Scientists said it is likely that the record-breaking El Nino has been bolstered by climate change. 

This year's El Nino is larger than the 1997-98 record event, NASA said.

"El Nino 2015 has already created weather chaos around the world," NASA said.

"Over the next few months, forecasters expect the United States to feel its impacts as well."

A comparison between satellite images of the Pacific sea surface shows the classic pattern of a fully developed El Niño. 

"The images show nearly identical, unusually high sea surface heights along the equator in the central and eastern Pacific: the signature of a big and powerful El Niño. Higher-than-normal sea surface heights are an indication that a thick layer of warm water is present," Alan Buis writes in a post published on NASA's website.

"El Ninos are triggered when the steady, westward-blowing trade winds in the Pacific weaken or even reverse direction, triggering a dramatic warming of the upper ocean in the central and eastern tropical Pacific."

Scientist Josh Willis told NASA that the formation of the sea surface height indicates we have not seen the end of the El Nino effect.

"Although the sea surface height signal in 1997 was more intense and peaked in November of that year, in 2015, the area of high sea levels is larger. This could mean we have not yet seen the peak of this El Nino." 

Jerome Lecou, a climate expert at the French weather service Meteo France, said the current El Nino sets a new record. 

"It is probably the most powerful in the last 100 years," he told AFP.

In an interview with the Guardian.com, top British meteorologist Adam Scaife said the weather phenomenon is typical of an early winter El Nino. 

Warm water rising in the eastern pacific, picked up by the El Nino, is believed to be disturbing weather patterns across the globe.

But the reverse may also be true, with this year's El Nino contributing to making 2015 the warmest on record, worldwide.

El Ninos typically reduce rainfall and causes droughts in Australia, while driving warm and moist air to South America instead.

Flooding and mudslides caused by torrential rains have killed at least 10 people and forced more than 150,000 people from their homes in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay this week. 

In Australia, high temperatures and extremely dry conditions have fanned bushfires in South Australia and Victoria.

"This year’s El Nino has caused the warm water layer that is normally piled up around Australia and Indonesia to thin dramatically, while in the eastern tropical Pacific, the normally cool surface waters are blanketed with a thick layer of warm water," Alan Buis said.