Climatologists warn of unpredictable anomalies due to El Niño
Scientists have warned that the combination of global warming and a rare type of El Niño could lead to weather patterns that science cannot accurately model, UzA reports, citing the journal Nature.
The current El Niño event is the first in nearly 30 years driven by abnormal warming in the eastern, rather than the central, Pacific Ocean. This type of climate phenomenon has not been recorded since the late 1990s.
The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) found that during the 2023–2024 season, the warming of tropical waters in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans disrupted the previous climate connection—teleconnection—preventing southern US states from experiencing a wet season and northern states from experiencing a dry one. Clara Deser, a senior scientist at NCAR, noted that historical experience can no longer serve as a guide due to intensifying anthropogenic warming.
Eran Voss, a climatologist at Bar-Ilan University, told Nature that the interaction between warming and El Niño will complicate forecasting and disaster preparedness. Among the impacts of the 2023–2024 season was also the drought in the Amazon, which became Brazil's most severe in 120 years.
Sources
This article was prepared with the help of AI and translated from the Russian original. Spotted an error — let us know.
Published 21 September 2026, 11:19 · No updates · Russian original
Discuss the news in our Telegram channel. Subscribe