NEW YORK, Sept 7 (Reuters) - El Nino, the notorious weather anomaly thatcan cause drought in one country and flooding in another, won't be intensethis time around.That's the prediction of the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) of the U.S.National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which on Fridaymaintained its forecast of a weak or moderate El Nino by late 2001 orearly 2002.The Center's Vernon Kousky said in a monthly update on the CPC websitethat the warming of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) "will continue in thecentral equatorial Pacific during the remainder of 2001 and into the firsthalf of 2002."He added, "The impacts that this warming will have on global temperatureand precipitation patterns depend to a large degree on its intensity."Kousky concluded, "At the moment, considering both the SST predictions andthe observed oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns, it seems mostlikely that the intensity of the warming will be weak or moderate."The literal translation of El Nino is "boy child" in Spanish.For the anchovy fishermen of Latin America who first noticed thephenomenon in the 19th century, the weather anomaly was named after theChrist child because it was usually seen around Christmas, whichcelebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.El Nino is an abnormal warming of waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, andits recurrence roughly every three years has wreaked devastation inweather patterns around the Pacific rim and can even affect hurricaneformation in the Atlantic ocean.The El Ninos of 1997 and 1983 struck with calamitous results, spawningwithering drought in Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia whilespawning rampant flooding in Peru and Ecuador.The 1983 El Nino was also blamed for floods in India and the drying out ofwater holes in South Africa.