El Nino effect: Challenges to adaptation and resilience
The United Nations weather agency forecast a moderate or possibly strong El Nino that could drive up global temperatures and increase the risk of extreme
The United Nations weather agency forecast a moderate or possibly strong El Nino that could drive up global temperatures and increase the risk of extreme weather in 2026. Experts said the El Nino, a natural warming cycle, should further heat a globe already warming from fossil fuel pollution and will likely turbocharge extreme weather across the planet. Meteorologists forecast it will rival — or exceed — a record El Nino that began in 1997 and helped trigger billions of dollars in damage from heat waves, floods, droughts, tornadoes and wildfires. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that over 1,300 excess deaths had been recorded in Europe since June 21 in connection with the record-breaking heatwave roasting much of the continent. India Meteorological Department (IMD), said on Tuesday (June 30, 2026) that rainfall in July — the most important of the monsoon months — will be “below normal” or less than 94% of what is usual for the month. India’s current monsoon deficit is 40%. A woman plays with her dog at Prospect Park amid a heatwave in New York City, U.S. on July 1, 2026. Tens of millions of Americans sweltered under furnace-like temperatures on July 2 as central and eastern cities hunkered down for a heat wave set to last through the July 4 holiday weekend. Head of climate prediction services at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Wilfran Moufouma-Okia points on graphs displayed on a computer screen at the WMO headquarters in Geneva, on June 1, 2026.
There is an 80% chance of the warming El Nino phenomenon developing between June and August, increasing the risk of extreme weather events, the World Meteorological Organization said on June 2, 2026. French firefighters and farmers work to extinguish a fire near a farm in Grand-Auverne, as drought worsens in Loire-Atlantique, France, on June 30, 2026. Climate change has driven record-breaking outbreaks of fire in Europe, Africa, Asia and elsewhere this year, with conditions expected to get worse as the northern hemisphere’s summer approaches and El Nino weather patterns kick in, scientists warned. A police water cannon sprays a cooling mist over passersby in Heroes' Square during a heatwave in Budapest, Hungary on June 30, 2026. All-time temperature records have been broken in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, as well as for the month of June in the U.K. and in Switzerland. A woman stands in a pile of ice to cool off at The Great American State Fair on the Mall amid a heatwave in Washington, D.C., U.S., on July 1, 2026. Washington, the capital, was forecast to see 100°F temperatures from July 2 through July 4, when it will host a fireworks display on the Mall that organisers said would be the biggest in history. View of the San Rafael Reservoir in La Calera, 14 km north-east of Bogota, taken on March 12, 2024. The Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies (Ideam) warned in January 2024 that Colombians would continue to suffer the effects of the El Niño phenomenon until at least April of this year, followed by a neutral phase that would last until June.
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