This winter could be warmer than usual under the effects of the phenomenon known as El Nino, the Shenzhen municipal meteorological bureau said.

The lasting drought since summer might also be the result of the phenomenon, experts with the bureau were quoted as saying by the Daily Sunshine.

El Nino, the "little boy" or "Christ Child" in Spanish, occurs when surface water temperatures remain warmer than usual in the Pacific off South America. A weakening of trade winds may add to the problem.

However, individuals might not feel a temperature abnormality, if there is any, because the long-term climate phenomenon would not affect daily weather too much, said Zhang Xiaoli, chief of the bureau's weather forecasting division.

Shenzhen's average temperature in October was 28 degrees Celsius, two degrees higher than the same period last year, but it was not considered abnormal compared with the city's other climate records, and it was hard to say El Nino had shown any effect on the city, Zhang said.

The China Meteorological Administration had warned that there could be more floods and droughts next summer, the newspaper said.

It was too dry in October, but the relative humidity had been increasing since the beginning of November, the newspaper said. However, is was still not time for artificial rain because there was no strong convective weather and the clouds were too high, bureau experts said.

After a seemingly unending string of hurricanes and typhoons, there has been talk that the "little boy" is stirring in the Pacific.

According to the China Meteorological Administration, a weak-to-moderate El Nino event has been detected in the equatorial region near the middle of the Pacific and is expected to develop. In the last 50 years, temperatures have increased during EI Nino, with more rain in southern China and droughts in the north.

India has blamed the phenomenon for weakening this year's monsoon, which is crucial for the country's crops.

Source: Shenzhen Daily News