(Reuters) - Neutral conditions are likely through the Northern Hemisphere summer this year, a U.S. government weather forecaster said on Thursday, indicating that the extreme weather patterns known as El Niño or La Niña are less probable during this season.
However, the chance of an El Niño pattern, associated with warmer and wetter weather than usual, increases to 50 percent during the fall and 65 percent during the winter of 2018-19, the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) said in a monthly forecast.
"The forecaster consensus favors the onset of El Niño during the Northern Hemisphere fall, which would then continue through winter," the report said.
Last month, the weather forecaster said the El Niño weather pattern could emerge by the winter of 2018-19.
(Reporting by Arpan Varghese and Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
