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This Year's El Niño Just Broke a Record Months Before It's Expected to Peak
NOAA forecasts the event will keep strengthening, with the latest daily anomaly at 3.08 degrees Celsius, above the previous record of 3.02 degrees Celsius.
- On September 21, the El Niño anomaly reached 3.08 degrees Celsius, exceeding the 1991 to 2020 average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This intensity is the most extreme ever recorded, surpassing the 2015 record.
- The transition to this strong El Niño has been rapid, with surface water temperatures rising in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, says Nathaniel Johnson of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. "It has been a remarkable event," Johnson added.
- Researchers from the Climate Impact Lab at the University of Chicago project over 450,000 additional heat-related deaths by February 2027. Deaths will be concentrated "overwhelmingly" in the Global South, including 66,800 across the Sahel in Africa.
- California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Monday to prepare for the El Niño season. The declaration allows authorities to "move faster to protect communities, stage critical resources, and strengthen readiness before severe weather intensifies."
- Seasonal forecasts from NOAA suggest the record will be broken soon, with the event likely peaking by the end of this year. Experts warn the phenomenon will continue driving extreme conditions including droughts and wildfires.
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17 Articles
17 Articles
This year's El Niño has already broken a 150-year-old record. And it's doing it several months early. - The summer of fires is just a small taste of what's to come, says climate scientist Kevin Trenberth to The Guardian.
·Stockholm, Sweden
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The equatorial Pacific already has a temperature anomaly of +3 °C and the 22 models consulted project that the phenomenon will continue to be strengthened
·Vicente López, Argentina
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The UK Met Office and Climate Impact Lab have announced that El Niño, which began in June 2026 and increased temperatures by 2.6°C in the Eastern Pacific, has reached its strongest level in observation history.
·Istanbul, Türkiye
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources17
Leaning Left4Leaning Right2Center2Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Left
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Left
50% Left
L 50%
C 25%
R 25%
Factuality
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