{"id":670218,"date":"2026-09-03T10:12:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/670218\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T10:12:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:12:22","slug":"supersized-el-nino-puts-planet-in-uncharted-waters-as-extreme-weather-risks-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/670218\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Supersized\u2019 El Ni\u00f1o puts planet in \u2018uncharted waters\u2019 as extreme weather risks grow"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u201csupersized\u201d El Nino<\/a> has pushed the planet into \u201cuncharted waters\u201d, with more floods, drought, and extreme heat forecast in the coming months, with the potential to threaten millions of lives.<\/p>\n

Fuelled by exceptionally warm ocean conditions across the tropical Pacific, El Nino \u2014 a climate phenomenon characterised by a warming of ocean surface temperatures which influences global weather \u2014 is now expected to strengthen further during the coming months to a very strong intensity.<\/p>\n

It will peak towards the end of this year, with climate impacts continuing well into 2027, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) now warns.<\/p>\n

Forecasts from the WMO indicate an almost 100% likelihood that El Ni\u00f1o will persist through to February 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cEl Nino is being supersized before our eyes. The science leaves no room for doubt: The planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up,\u201d said UN secretary general Ant\u00f3nio Guterres.<\/p>\n

\u201cSea surface temperatures are rising, temperatures keep climbing, and the world is in the danger zone of extreme weather. The race now is between rising risks and our commitment to take climate action and protect people. We must win that race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA forest fire in Luglon in Landes, France last month. Fuelled by exceptionally warm tropical seas, El Nino may result in elevated temperatures but also high-power winter storms. Picture: Romain Perrocheau\/AFP\/Getty<\/p>\n

El Nino has the potential to deliver a massive blow to communities and economies across the world, said WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are already seeing disruption and devastation from droughts and floods and we expect these impacts to increase as El Nino intensifies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis exceptional El Nino demands exceptional preparation and response. We have no time to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

The widely-used Ni\u00f1o 3.4 index, which measures sea surface temperature anomalies in central-eastern equatorial Pacific has strengthened markedly from an average +1.5C above normal during May-July 2026 and +2.0C above normal in July.<\/p>\n

\"'We‘We have no time to lose,’ said World Meteorological Organization (WMO) secretary general Celeste Saulo. File picture: Salvatore Di Nolfi\/Keystone\/AP<\/p>\n

Weekly values subsequently increased further between late July and mid-August, ranging from approximately +2.2C to +2.6C above average, indicating continued intensification. And subsurface ocean temperatures are even more exceptionally warm, reaching more than 8C above average during July and early August in some areas.<\/p>\n

Unicef warning about food security<\/p>\n

Unicef has warned that more than 162m children \u2014 more than two-thirds of all children in Eastern and Southern Africa \u2014 live in areas exposed to the impact of the strengthening 2026\/2027 El Nino.<\/p>\n

Intensifying drought, extreme heat, and flooding threaten children\u2019s nutrition, health, access to safe water, sanitation, education, and safety.<\/p>\n

Forecasts provide a narrow but critical window to act before the most severe consequences are felt, it warned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe threat from El Nino is growing, and the risks for children are already clear,\u201d said Etleva Kadilli, Unicef regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the region, children are facing food and water insecurity, overstretched health services and disrupted learning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Further, major climate shocks will likely push children and the systems they rely on to breaking point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unicef assessments point to urgent and overlapping risks for children in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In Somalia, flooding could directly affect up to 2.5m people under the most severe scenario mapping, driving displacement and impacting children\u2019s access to food, healthcare, safe water and education.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In Ethiopia, tens of thousands of children are likely to be affected, particularly in areas already facing severe food insecurity and vulnerability.<\/p>\n

\u2022 And, in South Sudan, drought, extreme heat and localised flooding threaten to deepen food insecurity and malnutrition, increase disease outbreaks and compound famine risks and large-scale displacement.<\/p>\n

Second climate warning this week<\/p>\n

The WMO\u2019s is the second major climate warning this week, after the UN said<\/a> it is \u201cunavoidable\u201d that the target of limiting global warming to 1.5C, established by the 2015 Paris Agreement, will not now be met.<\/p>\n

The effects of this will be \u201cirreversible,\u201d the UN warned, calling for urgent measures to halt global temperature rise<\/a> as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

The UN said global heating will reach at least 1.8C under even the most optimistic future, adding that every fraction of temperature rise intensifies destructive extreme weather, glacier melt<\/a>, ecosystem loss, and island and coastal city submersion.<\/p>\n

Heating of up to 3C above preindustrial levels could lead to glaciers losing more than a quarter of their mass by 2100, raising sea levels by up to 13cm.<\/p>\n

Global food production could decline by up to 14% by 2050 if there are not effective strategies to adapt.<\/p>\n

The El Nino warnings come as Met \u00c9ireann\u2019s latest climate statement<\/a> shows that August was warmer and drier than average, with the mean temperature of 16.27C making it the ninth warmest on record since 1900.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201csupersized\u201d El Nino has pushed the planet into \u201cuncharted waters\u201d, with more floods, drought, and extreme heat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,442,18,13,14,518,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,443],"class_list":["post-670218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-climate-change","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-food","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-weather"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117206579553295725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}