El Niño–Southern Oscillation

Birds perch on barriers separating Mexico and the United States, where the border meets the Pacific Ocean, in Tijuana, Mexico, Nov. 17, 2018.Photo: Marco Ugarte (AP)El Niño is here and bringing record temperatures this June. As of this month, the global shift has officially arrived and is “expected to gradually strengthen into the Northern Hemisphere winter 2023-24,” according to a recent announcement from NOAA.Lower Drought Conditions In California | Extreme EarthThere have been several signs of El Niño’s development…

What explains the series of extreme events? Attributing any single weather event to climate change is a complicated business. Part of the difficulty reflects the intricate mechanisms of Earth’s climate, where persistent warming is the ominous background hum against which numerous other patterns play out. “Every event is a combination of climate change and climate variability," says Caroline Wainwright, a climate scientist at Imperial College London. Weather versus climateOne of the most…

El Niño years are rough: They come with an increased likelihood of diseases spreading, toxic algae blooms, and drought conditions. In a new study published in the journal Science, researchers looked at how the financial toll of this cyclical global shift can persist for years and result in the loss of trillions of dollars.Arctic Blast to Send U.S. into Dangerous Deep Freeze, Imperiling Holiday TravelEl Niño is marked by warming ocean temperatures in the Pacific and weaker trade winds, a combination that alters global…

In 2015, in Paris, the nations of the world committed themselves to trying their best to prevent the…

Poisonous algae bloom affected major cities and fishing towns in Chile in 2016. Experts said it was linked to high temperatures stemming from the El Niño. Photo: Esteban Felix (AP)El Niño almost here, the global shift is likely to stick around until this winter, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced this week. After an unusual three-year La Niña, all signs are pointing to changes in weather patterns for 2023.Lower Drought Conditions In California | Extreme EarthLast month, NOAA said there was a 62%…

The catastrophic 2019-2020 bushfire season in Australia was so extreme that it may have contributed to the rare triple-year La Niña, new research has found. In a study released in Science Advances this week, scientists found that the fires created enormous emissions that affected weather patterns globally.The U.S. In For A Dry Winter | Extreme EarthThe bushfires burned through eucalyptus forests throughout southern and eastern Australia. The fires ignited in 2019, burned for months, and weren’t put out until well into…

After a particularly extended stay, the La Niña weather phenomenon that’s persisted for the past three years, contributing to extreme weather worldwide,has finally come to an end. Pacific Ocean waters along the equator have warmed up to near-average temps, ending the La Niña state, which is diagnosed via Pacific sea surface temperature. The news came in a Thursday statement from the U.S. Climate Prediction Center, titled “Final La Niña Advisory.” Along with the marine temperature change, climatologists and meteorologists…