UN Warns of 'Supersized' El Niño, Potentially Strongest Since 1950
New WMO data shows the developing El Niño could be the strongest in more than seventy years, lasting until at least February 2027 — with key Pacific waters already 2C above average and monthly anomalies possibly approaching 4C. “El Niño is being supersized before our eyes,” said UN secretary-general Guterres. “The planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up.” The WMO warned of “a massive blow to communities and economies across the world”.
El Niño is the closest thing the climate system has to a global economic event: it reorganises rainfall from the Horn of Africa to the Andes, moves wheat, rice and coffee prices, and historically adds a measurable increment to world temperatures already at record highs. A “supersized” edition arriving on top of the warmest baseline ever observed is why the language from Geneva has abandoned its usual restraint. The near-term map is grimly legible: drought risk across southern Africa and Australia, flood risk on South America’s Pacific coast, a suppressed Atlantic hurricane season, and — for Britain — the wetter winters and drier summers ministers are already citing in resilience planning. Watch food-price forecasts through the autumn; they move before the weather does.