A massive El Nino is STILL growing: Ten year high will cause prices of everything from chocolate to coffee to rocket but WON'T bring relief to California, forecasters say Forecast says El Nino conditions are likely to last another nine months US set to experience wetter-than-normal conditions along Gulf Coast Peru declared a pre-emptive state of emergency ahead of floods. In California, they're counting on it to end an historic drought; in Peru, they've already declared a pre-emptive emergency to prepare for devastating flooding. Experts say El Nino is set to be the largest in well over a decade - and will increase the price of coffee, chocolate and sugar. The latest forecasts reveals the effect is still growing, and could survive the winter. However, they say a competing weather pattern known as 'the blob' could stop it bringing desperately needed relief to California. That pool of incredibly warm ocean water was a major player in the weather over western North America this past winter. A strong ridge of high pressure was parked over the region, keeping things warm and dry from California to Alaska. The wintertime pattern has been so domineering that West Coast meteorologists dubbed it the 'ridiculously resilient ridge' and believe it could cancel out the effects of el Nino. But the Capital Weather Gang's Matt Rogers told the Washington Post the North Pacific warm pool is a powerhouse right now and could prove hard to overcome, especially if El Niño turns out to be weaker than predicted. 'The positive SST feedback from that warm pool would likely get outweighed by tropical forcing from an El Niño if we see a strong or super El Niño hold through the winter just based on past performance,' Rogers said. Looking back through previous events, he has found that global weather patterns — in particular, the North Atlantic Oscillation and Indian Ocean temperatures — are not quite matching up with previous strong events like the ones in 1997-1998, which throws a lot more uncertainty into the forecasts that are calling for a very strong El Niño. Rogers says if El Niño ends up being weaker than predicted, 'then the warm pool could influence bigger Alaska ridges like the last two winters,' which would mean another painfully dry rainy season for California. 'El Nino is not the end of the world so you don't have to hide under the bed. The reality is that in the U.S. an El Nino can be a good thing,' said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. This El Nino officially started in March and keeps getting stronger. 'El Niño continued to build during June, despite some shorter-term fluctuations in the climate system,' the latest forcast says. If current trends continue, it should officially be termed a strong El Nino early in August, peak sometime near the end of year and peter out sometime next spring. Meteorologists say it looks like the biggest such event since the fierce El Nino of 1997-1998. California mudslides notwithstanding, the U.S. economy benefited by nearly $22 billion from that El Nino, according to a 1999 study. That study found that 189 people were killed in the U.S, mainly from tornadoes linked to El Nino, but an estimated 850 lives were saved due to a milder winter. A United Nations-backed study said that El Nino cost Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela nearly $11 billion.