El Niños have been more intense over the last 40 years than in the previous 1,000 years, coral records reveal
As an El Niño of historic proportions is taking shape in the tropical Pacific, a University of Michigan study has found that El Niño events have become nearly 40% stronger in the last 40 years than they were in the preindustrial era.
Recent research from the University of Michigan has revealed that El Niño events have become nearly 40% stronger in the last 40 years compared to the preindustrial era. This conclusion was drawn after analyzing modern and ancient corals from the Galápagos Islands, which showed that the intensity of El Niño events in recent decades surpasses any recorded in the past 1,000 years, predating the era of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.
Lead author Julia Cole, a professor at U-M, emphasized that these extreme El Niño events are not part of the natural variability observed in the past, and their increased strength correlates with rising global temperatures. El Niño is a natural climate pattern characterized by warming ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific, which disrupts weather patterns globally, leading to extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and wildfires.
The study suggests that the current El Niño is particularly intense and poses a significant threat due to the ongoing global warming, potentially leading to even higher temperatures and more severe impacts on ecosystems, infrastructure, and human health. The findings highlight the urgent need to address climate change to mitigate the increasingly powerful effects of El Niño.
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