El Nino chances exceed 65 pct during summer -U.S. weather forecaster

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The chances have increased over the past month that the much-feared El Nino weather phenomenon would strike in the Northern Hemisphere during the remainder of the year, the federal U.S. forecaster said Thursday.

In its monthly report, the Climate Prediction Center, an agency of the National Weather Service, upped the likelihood of the weather pattern developing during the remainder the year, raising it to more than 65 percent during the summer.

In April, it increased the chance of the weather pattern developing above 50 percent.

(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Nick Zieminski)