U.S. Climate Center Shifts to La Niña Watch as Pacific Stays Neutral

The U.S. Climate Prediction Center said on 21 August that El Niño–Southern Oscillation conditions are currently neutral, with sea-surface temperatures near average across most of the tropical Pacific. Updating its alert system, the agency placed the Pacific basin under a La Niña Watch, signaling an increased likelihood that the cool-phase pattern could develop in the coming months. The CPC expects ENSO-neutral conditions to persist through the end of summer and into early fall 2025, sees only a very small chance of El Niño through early spring 2026, and projects a brief period in which La Niña becomes the favored outcome thereafter.