Canberra, June 6 : An El Niño event is looking more probable than ever after the Bureau of Meteorology upgraded its status from "El Niño watch" to "El Niño alert" this afternoon.

This means there is about a 70 per cent chance of the weather event developing this year. BoM Senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures had met El Niño thresholds, but the atmosphere had not.