U.K. forecasts ‘biggest’ El Nino will smash records, spark hottest year

The UK's national weather agency has predicted that this year's El Niño weather pattern will be the biggest in over a century. El Niño occurs when warming sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific trigger worldwide changes in winds, atmospheric pressure, and rainfall, as well as higher global temperatures overall.

According to Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the Met Office, the El Niño event is expected to peak at something over 3°C above the norm, which is unheard of in modern climate records. This would make 2027 the hottest year globally. The Pacific water is expected to heat up more than 3°C above the norm in the coming months, with temperatures currently running about 2.6°C above a rolling 30-year average.

The record-strength El Niño could intensify global warming and disrupt weather patterns. India may face additional pressure on the monsoon and farm output, while severe droughts are expected in places like South America and the West Pacific. The Met Office described the event as "adding to the stresses of climate change" following a summer of heat waves across Europe.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Hindu - Sci-Tech, The Jakarta Post, Hindustan Times - World News, Phys.org, The Korea Times — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.