World braces for extreme weather as El Niño arrives

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El Niño is officially underway and threatens to make 2027 the hottest year in history. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which made the call yesterday, has judged there to be a 63% chance that the phenomenon is “very strong” between November and January. That is bad news given the droughts, wildfires, flooding and excess heat it can cause around the world, especially in the tropics, and given that any impact will be supercharged by human-caused warming and widespread government dysfunction. There are two small upsides. The first is that El Niño tends to dampen Atlantic hurricanes, which may make the next few months more manageable on the US east coast and in the Gulf. The second is that the spike in global temperatures may finally make world leaders understand the cost of climate inaction.