Forecasters say strong El Nino could boost heat, drought and rain

Key Points:

• Seasonal climate models predict a potentially record-strong El Nino event developing mid-2024, which could cause unprecedented extreme weather globally, according to meteorologists and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
• El Nino involves warming of equatorial Pacific waters, redistributing heat and impacting global temperature and rainfall patterns; current subsurface heat movements indicate the early stages of this event.
• Experts warn that if this El Nino becomes a "super" event, it could intensify heat waves, droughts, and floods worldwide, while suppressing the Atlantic hurricane season and causing drier conditions in regions like the Caribbean.
• The United States may experience hotter-than-normal summer temperatures with more frequent thunderstorms in the Southwest, while areas like the Amazon could face exacerbated forest degradation due to combined effects of El Nino and climate change.
• While El Nino temporarily raises global temperatures, climate scientists emphasize that the long-term concern remains the ongoing rise in global temperatures driven by fossil fuel emissions, beyond the cyclical El Nino-La Nina pattern.