{
  "id": 2350041,
  "title": "'An unprecedented event': UK Met Office says this year's El Niño to be 'biggest for over a century'",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/21/an-unprecedented-event-uk-met-office-says-this-years-el-nino-to-be",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-08-21T09:21:08.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dawn",
    "slug": "dawn",
    "url": "https://www.dawn.com/news/2024333/an-unprecedented-event-uk-met-office-says-this-years-el-nino-to-be-biggest-for-over-a-century"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "This year's El Niño weather pattern is set to be the strongest in over a century, according to Britain's national weather agency, the Met Office. Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the Met Office, informed the BBC that the upcoming El Niño is expected to peak at more than three degrees Celsius, a level never before observed in modern climate records. The agency describes this unprecedented event as \"an unheard-of\" warming of sea surface temperatures, which triggers global changes in winds, atmospheric pressure, and rainfall patterns, leading to warmer overall temperatures.\n\nScaife emphasized that the effects of this intense El Niño will be particularly pronounced in the Tropics, where severe droughts are expected in regions like South America and the West Pacific. The current temperatures in these areas are already up to nearly two degrees above the 30-year average, according to the Climate Brink dashboard.\n\nThese effects are not short-term weather forecasts but rather long-term, persistent conditions, with significant implications for global food security, according to Scaife, a physicist specializing in climate modelling. In addition to droughts, the weather pattern is also anticipated to bring increased rainfall and storminess in the UK around November.",
  "summary": "This year’s El Niño weather pattern will be the biggest in over a century, warming sea surface temperatures to an “unheard-of” level, Britain’s national weather agency predicted on Friday. The El Niño weather pattern is declared when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise 0.5°C above the baseline average, triggering worldwide changes in winds, atmospheric pressure and rainfall…",
  "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."
}