2026 will go down in history for what could become the largest El Niño in living memory, as the world scrambles to prepare for an onslaught of extreme weather.
The natural weather phenomenon (Spanish for ‘the boy’) occurs irregularly – roughly every two to seven years – when sea temperatures in the Eastern Pacific Ocean become unusually warm. Experts first started warning that a strong El Niño could form at the beginning of this year, supported by large amounts of heat in the subsurface ocean and the expected weakening of low-level trade winds.
