The United States agency which monitors weather patterns says the phenomenon known as El Nino is likely to develop in the Pacific Ocean in the next three months.
The US Oceanic Atmospheric Administration is quoted by the Australian Association Press as saying the surface of the sea is warming faster than normal.
This heating is said by some climate scientists to favour the formation of the El Nino pattern - which has been blamed for droughts in the western Pacific, and heavy rains in the east.
