Forecasting models indicate an extreme El Niño is developing toward potentially historic strength, with a leading expert at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts saying he has never seen such a powerful and consistent projection in more than three decades.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme appealed on July 6 for over $200 million to shield 8.8 million people across 22 high-risk countries, including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Researchers warn that climate change may worsen El Niño's impacts, which historically bring drought to southern Africa and heavy rains to East Africa.
The pattern follows the last El Niño, which helped make 2023 the second-hottest year on record and 2024 the hottest. Meanwhile, a separate late-June heatwave killed 3,700 excess people in France, the Netherlands and Belgium — an event scientists say would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, though unrelated to El Niño.