Pacific measurement zone sets warmth record for 15th consecutive week
A key area of the Pacific Ocean used to measure El Niño’s strength reached its warmest and most intense level ever recorded for the 15th week since the weather pattern formed, scientists at Columbia University reported. That benchmark, reached this week, is notable because it is still early in the event’s lifetime.
El Niño — a natural warming of the Pacific near the equator that warps weather patterns worldwide — has not yet peaked and is not expected to for several months. The phenomenon should last through spring 2027, according to the World Meteorological Organization, a United Nations agency.
The WMO cautioned Friday that El Niño will likely trigger extreme heat, drought and rainfall well into next year, compounding weather hazards across much of the globe.
“Two months ago, I warned that El Nino was arriving on our doorstep. Now it is inside the house — and turning up the heat,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Friday. He described the pattern as “adding fuel to a planet already on fire.”
Guterres pointed to conditions already experienced this summer as evidence of the toll. “We have already endured a summer of extremes — record-shattering heat domes; apocalyptic wildfires raging in Spain, France and far beyond; thousands of lives lost in the scorching conditions,” he said.