El Niño is here, and that usually means more wacky weather
A dried-up corn field on April 10th, 2016, in Cotabato, Mindanao, Philippines. The heatwave brought on by the El Nino weather phenomenon severely affected food and water supplies in many countries. | Photo by Jes Aznar / Getty Images
The notorious climate pattern known as El Niño has arrived, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today. El Niño often triggers more extreme weather around the world, although we’ll have to wait and see how things shake out this year.
Heat is one of its trademarks. A warning from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in May said that this year’s El Niño, combined with climate change, might “push global temperatures into uncharted territory.” The world’s hottest year on record was 2016, the last time a strong El Niño developed (there was a weak one from 2018-2019).
There’s an 84 percent chance of a “greater than a moderate strength El Niño” developing by the winter,…
