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El Nino While some forecasting methods had limited success predicting the 1997 El Nino a few months in advance1, the Columbia University researchers say their method can predict large El Nino events up to two years in advance. That would be good news for governments, farmers and others seeking to plan for the droughts and heavy rainfall that El Nino can produce in various parts of the world. Using a computer, the researchers matched sea-surface temperatures to later El Nino occurrences between 1980 and 2000 and were then able to anticipate El Nino events dating back to 1857, using prior sea-surface temperatures. The results were reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature. The researchers say their method is not perfect, but Bryan C Weare, a meteorologist at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the work, said it suggests2 El Nino is indeed predictable. This will probably convince others to search around more for even better methods, said Weare. He added that the new method makes it possible to predict El Nino at long lead times3. Other models also use sea-surface temperatures, but they have not looked as far back because they need other data, which is only available for recent decades, Weare said. The ability to predict the wanning and cooling of the Pacific is of immense importance4. The 1997 El Nino, for example, caused an estimated $20 billion in damage worldwide, offset by beneficial effects in other areas, said David Anderson, of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, England. The 1877 El Nino, meanwhile, coincided with a failure of the Indian monsoon and a famine that killed perhaps 40 million in India and China, prompting the development of seasonal forecasting, Anderson said. | 
