Ocean temperatures reached a near-record-breaking monthly high in April as forecasters warn that we could be on the cusp of one of the strongest El Niño events of the century. El Niño is the warm phase of a multi-year natural climate pattern that increases global temperatures. Forecasters have predicted that there's a one in four chance that an unusually strong, or "super" El Niño, could emerge this year, with new data suggesting that warming El Niño conditions will soon be upon us. The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service has found that sea surface temperatures in April reflected a transition to El Niño conditions. Across the extrapolar global ocean, which encompasses all oceans except for the icy Arctic and Antarctic regions, surface temperatures were the second highest for any April on record (21 degrees Celsius, or 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit), trailing only those seen in April 2024 (21.04 C, or 69.87 F) — the warmest April ever recorded.…