// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Super El Niño sets another record as it strengthens to 'unprecedented levels'
Flooded streets following the arrival of Hurricane Polo in the town of Puerto San Carlos, Baja California Sur, Mexico, on 29 September. The Category 3 storm added to an already busy hurricane season turbo-charged by El Niño.
El Niño has continued to strengthen to what some scientists are calling "unprecedented levels", weeks before its expected peak in December.
In its latest update, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said average weekly sea-surface temperatures in the central Pacific have reached their highest level on record, external.
It comes after scientists declared a new record for daily sea surface temperatures in the central-eastern Pacific in September, exceeding the previous record set during the very strong El Niño of 2015.
El Niño this year is creating new ocean temperature records in a background of overall ocean warming due to human-induced climate change, seen especially when comparing previous record El Niño events
Temperatures above 30C have also been recorded for the first time in parts of the tropical Pacific, while record sea-surface temperature anomalies and exceptional subsurface warmth have been observed.
These measurements come from the region of the equatorial Pacific used to monitor El Niño.
El Niño is a naturally-occurring pattern, which happens about every two to seven years and tends to last for around a year.
However, the Pacific is also warming due to human-induced climate change and this is starting to mask the strength of the natural warming during El Niño.
To remove this additional warming signal, Australian and US official forecasters are now using a Relative Ocean El Niño Index (RONI), to enable better comparison to historical events.