NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. government weather forecaster on Thursday extended its outlook for how long El Nino weather conditions will last, pegging chances they will continue into the Northern Hemisphere's 2015-16 winter at 85 percent.
The Climate Prediction Center (CPC), an agency of the National Weather Service, previously saw a more than 80 percent chance El Nino would last through 2015. Thursday's monthly report from the CPC was the first to forecast the conditions are likely to last into 2016.
Japan's weather bureau on Wednesday also said it sees the possibility of El Nino lasting into the winter.
El Nino, the warming of Pacific sea-surface temperatures, can have devastating consequences for global agriculture, triggering heavy rains and floods in South America and scorching weather in Asia and as far away as east Africa.
In the United States, El Nino increases precipitation in key agricultural regions and reduces the likelihood of a busy hurricane season from June to November that can disrupt energy operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
The CPC said it sees a chance of a "strong event" in the fall and winter.
To read the full CPC report, click here: http://1.usa.gov/1ggMcrL
(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Andrew Hay)