U.S. authorities say El Niño has officially begun

U.S. officials have formally declared that El Niño began on Thursday, after months of monitoring showed a sharp rise in sea-surface temperatures. The announcement came from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, which said the warming pattern in the Pacific can drive major climate shifts around the world.

Scientists and climate groups say the current event could be one of the strongest ever recorded. NOAA’s latest forecast puts the chance of a “super El Niño,” a particularly rare and intense version of the phenomenon, at 63%. El Niño increases the likelihood of extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods and droughts.

The article says the effects could be felt by tens of millions of people and could also hurt the global economy. It may contribute, alongside broader global warming, to another year of record heat in late 2026 and in 2027, with impacts on food supplies as well as on economic activity.

A senior official at Britain’s Met Office told the BBC that “toward the end of this year and during 2027, we are likely to see very high global temperatures.” Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli, quoted by Euronews, warned, “I think we will see weather events we have never seen in modern history.” The last El Niño was in 2024, which became the hottest year ever measured, and it was considered much weaker than the current one. El Niño typically occurs every 2 to 7 years and lasts about 9 to 12 months.