What could a 'super' El Niño mean for the Prairies?

"Every indicator has shown that this [El Niño-Southern Oscillation] is continuing to strengthen," said Lindsey Long, a meteorologist with the ENSO team at the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) in the U.S.

"We're getting [sea surface temperature] anomalies of up to 11 C, so those are extremely warm waters that are helping to fuel this."

El Niño is part of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) , which is a fluctuation between warmer sea surface temperature anomalies — El Niño — and colder anomalies — La Niña — in the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean.

These fluctuations happen in periods of two to seven years.