'Godzilla El Nino' winter forecast for Slovakia

Slovakia is about to enter an unstable winter, with warm rainy days likely to turn immediately into colder snowy days - all due to the El Nino ocean-atmosphere phenomenon, which appears to be unusually strong in the next few months. This was reported in the Pravda daily on Tuesday. The NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce, estimates that there are 90-percent odds that El Nino will significantly influence weather on the global scale this winter, while there's a 80-percent chance that its effects will be perceptible at least until July. This particular El Nino has already been dubbed the 'Godzilla El Nino' in the media, as it may quite well surpass the extreme phenomena seen in the Pacific in 1997-98. Slovak meteorologists predict that this winter, snow will probably only be seen on a more permanent basis above 1,300 to 1,500 metres. Many Slovak ski resorts are below this level, however. "It can be stated for sure that there will be unstable and unbalanced weather. It may happen that there will be weather extremes that will surprise quite a few people", said climatologist Pavol Faško from the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMU). Unstable weather in Slovakia is immediately caused by depressions in the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea related to El Nino. "Bratislava is particularly sensitive to this. It frequently happens that in such weather conditions, it begins snowing in the city's western parts, while it's raining in its eastern parts", said Faško.