THE WEATHER PHENOMENON that’s warming up the Pacific Ocean is going to make climate change-driven extreme weather events even worse over the next several months.

El Niño – a pattern of changing ocean temperatures and wind patterns in the tropical Pacific that happens every few years – is expected to fuel extreme weather into early next year, according to a new report by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

The El Niño effect isn’t new, but experts have been warning that this year’s looks like it’ll be particularly intense – adding fuel to the fire already set in motion by the climate crisis.

“El Niño 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,” said António Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations.  

A strong El Niño event can significantly shift rainfall and temperature patterns across many parts of the world.

This one is expected to be particularly strong and to last until February 2027, the WMO has said.

The El Niño phenomenon itself is not directly caused by climate change, but the effects of the El Niño can worsen the impacts of the climate crisis around the world.

“It has the potential to deliver a massive blow to communities and economies across the world,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

“We are already seeing disruption and devastation from droughts and floods and we expect these impacts to increase as El Niño intensifies,” Saulo said.

What it means

The impacts of El Niño will play out in different ways and to different extents around the world.

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In eastern and southern Africa, more than 162 million children are exposed to the impacts of this El Niño, like heat, droughts and flooding, according to Unicef.

The children’s charity said yesterday that children’s nutrition, health, education and access to safe water and sanitation are all at risk as a result.

In Ethiopia, for example, tens of thousands of children are likely to be affected in areas that are already suffering from severe food insecurity and vulnerability.

For Ireland, the exact impacts are more difficult to predict and will likely be less than in some other parts of the world, but it could contribute to colder winter temperatures here and elsewhere in northeast Europe.