{
  "id": 11768299,
  "title": "How can the same El Niño cause drought in one part of the world and floods in another?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/03/how-can-the-same-el-nino-cause-drought-in-one-part-of-the-world-and",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-03T21:00:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-09-el-nio-drought-world.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The El Niño phenomenon, a natural fluctuation in Earth's climate system, can bring drought to some regions while causing heavy rain and flooding in others. To comprehend why, one must understand the behavior of warm and cold water in the Pacific Ocean and the air above it.\n\nTypically, trade winds blow from east to west over the tropical Pacific, pushing warm surface water toward the western Pacific, where it accumulates around Indonesia. This process, known as upwelling, brings cold water from deeper in the ocean to the surface in the eastern Pacific, maintaining a temperature contrast between the two regions.\n\nAs warm water moves westward, it evaporates more, adding moisture to the air above it. The warm air rises, cools, and condenses into clouds and rain, releasing heat into the atmosphere. The Walker circulation, driven by this process, helps maintain the east-west trade winds, which in turn push warm water westward and bring cold water to the eastern Pacific.\n\nHowever, during El Niño, trade winds weaken, and more warm water remains in the central and eastern Pacific. The atmosphere above this warmed water also shifts eastward, leading to increased rainfall in the eastern Pacific and coastal Peru. Yet, this shift has consequences elsewhere. As more air rises in the central and eastern Pacific, less air sinks over the western Pacific, leading to drier conditions in regions like Indonesia. Furthermore, the temperature difference between the western and eastern Pacific diminishes, weakening the trade winds and potentially causing more severe droughts in affected areas.\n\nEl Niño's influence extends beyond the Pacific, affecting weather thousands of kilometers away through teleconnections. The heat released when water vapor condenses into clouds changes atmospheric conditions far beyond the Pacific, impacting rainfall patterns in places like the Sahel and even the UK. However, these links are less certain and influenced by other atmospheric factors.\n\nLastly, El Niño can also alter conditions in other oceans, interacting with the Indian Ocean dipole, which strongly influences rainfall over East Africa and parts of India. Nonetheless, El Niño alone does not determine the weather on any given day.",
  "summary": "The Pacific Ocean is warming unusually quickly, and this year's El Niño has already surpassed previous records. Forecasters expect it to strengthen even further before approaching its usual peak around December.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}