(NEXSTAR) – Meteorologists are continuing to warn of the El Niño weather event expected to impact us throughout the winter, with a new climate outlook from the World Meteorological Organization suggesting it “could be unprecedented in strength.”

In an update Wednesday, the WMO said this year’s El Niño weather pattern could be so strong, it could “literally [be] off the monitoring charts that we have used for the past four decades.”

A main focus of forecasting El Niño comes down to sea surface temperatures. In the Pacific, an “anomaly of 0.5 [degrees Celsius] above normal” can trigger an El Niño alert from the WMO, according to the United Nations.…