{"id":108205,"date":"2026-08-21T14:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108205\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T14:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:12:07","slug":"el-nino-set-to-be-most-intense-for-over-a-century-uk-forecasters-weather-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108205\/","title":{"rendered":"El Nino set to be most intense \u2018for over a century\u2019: UK forecasters | Weather News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Met Office predicts \u2018unprecedented\u2019 sea surface temperature rise of 3C (5.4F) plus will heighten extreme weather risks.<\/p>\n

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Published On 21 Aug 202621 Aug 2026<\/p>\n

The impact of this year\u2019s El Nino event is expected to be the most intense in more than a century, United Kingdom forecasters have warned.<\/p>\n

The effect of the event will drive the risk of drought, high temperatures, intense rainfall and other extreme weather effects, the Met Office said in a statement issued on Friday.<\/p>\n

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Typically, El Nino leads sea surface temperatures to rise between 1-2 degrees Celsius (1.8-3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). However, forecasts for the 2026 version predict record values of more than 3C (5.4F) in the coming months, the forecasters said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be clear that this is an unprecedented event,\u201d said Adam Scaife, head of the office\u2019s long-range forecasting. \u201cI have never seen an El Nino signal this intense in our forecasts.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the spike plays out as anticipated, \u201cthen 2026 will far exceed our recent experience of El Nino and its worldwide climate influences\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

The chief forecaster separately told the BBC that the three-degree rise was \u201cunheard-of in modern climate records\u201d.<\/p>\n

El Nino is triggered by unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, influencing global weather patterns.<\/p>\n

Governments around the world are already grappling<\/a> with historic climate events so far this year.<\/p>\n

Wildfires have burned through<\/a> more than 200,000 hectares (494,200 acres) in Indonesia and rampaged across<\/a> southwestern Europe, forcing the displacement of at least 325,000 people in Spain and France. Other countries are dealing with severe droughts.<\/p>\n

The Met Office said El Nino will spawn wetter, stormier conditions in northwestern Europe, including the UK, as autumn and winter arrive in the Northern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

Particularly strong effects are expected throughout the Tropics, Scaife said, \u201cwhere we expect really severe droughts in places like South America, and the West Pacific\u201d.<\/p>\n

In mid-August, the UK recorded its hottest day<\/a> of the year as the temperature in west London climbed to 38.1C (100.5F), beating the previous high of 38C (100.4F) in June.<\/p>\n

Combined with the effects of human-induced climate change, the Met Office warned that the event is \u201cvery likely\u201d to make 2027 the hottest year on record globally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Met Office predicts \u2018unprecedented\u2019 sea surface temperature rise of 3C (5.4F) plus will heighten extreme weather risks. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[394,252,18,5,6,150],"class_list":["post-108205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-climate","tag-europe","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-weather"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117133911464231371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}