El Niño

El Niño is here, and forecasters warn that it’s likely to be bigger and stronger in 2026-27 than any El Niño event recorded in at least 150 years. I am a biologist who has been monitoring the weather in Panama and surrounding regions for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute for almost 40 years, and what I am seeing in 2026 in terms of heat and drought has already begun to exceed anything that we have measured here in over a century.

To understand how climate patterns are changing, we need to understand what happened during El Niño events in the past, but observations go back only a few decades. So, my colleagues and I went to the Galápagos Islands – at the heart of the El Niño pattern – to find answers from some of nature’s best record keepers: corals.

A record El Niño event could help shape Florida’s winter weather by producing wetter conditions and an increased risk of severe weather.

Weeklong rainstorms have battered Chile and killed at least 10 people. Authorities on Tuesday raced to reach more than 100,000 cut off by flash floods in what has been one of the country's worst weather disasters in decades. Torrential rains and strong winds have battered the usually arid northern regions of Atacama and Coquimbo. The government declared a state of disaster on Monday.

From Brazil's expansion of firefighting brigades and aircraft to contingency plans for water, energy and agriculture in countries including Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, authorities are preparing for potentially severe impacts.

It’s official: El Niño is back. By late fall 2026, forecast models give a 2-in-3 chance of a strong-to-very strong El Niño affecting the weather, climate and ocean temperatures across the planet. I’m a climate scientist who studies the oceans. With an El Niño expected to strengthen through the summer and fall, water temperatures will heat up even more. It’s time to start preparing.

Colorado State University’s 2026 Atlantic hurricane season outlook calls for below-normal activity across the Atlantic basin due to a likely transition into an El Niño.

A transition into neutral and even an El Niño status in 2026 will have significant climate impacts across the U.S. and around the world.

‘It’s alarming to me that you can’t count on El Niño to reliably reduce hurricane risk. We’ve learned that is subject to external factors that can override it.'

The Climate Prediction Center’s updated weather outlook indicates a slightly increased confidence of a strong El Niño event by this winter.

The latest estimate from various forecast centers around the world say the planet is approaching a warming threshold international agreements are trying to prevent.

The peak of hurricane season may produce more dangerous storms than originally predicted, federal hurricane forecasters said Thursday, as oceanic and…