The world has entered a \u201cdanger zone of extreme weather\u201d as a rapidly intensifying El Ni\u00f1o threatens to drive dangerous heat, drought and flooding into 2027, United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres has warned.<\/p>\n
\u201cEl Ni\u00f1o is being supersized before our eyes,\u201d Guterres said, describing a planet in \u201cuncharted waters\u201d as ocean and atmospheric temperatures continue to rise.<\/p>\n
The World Meteorological Organization confirmed on Thursday that El Ni\u00f1o is firmly established and is expected to reach \u201cvery strong\u201d intensity before peaking near the end of 2026. Its forecasting centres report a nearly 100 per cent likelihood that the event will persist through February 2027.<\/p>\n
The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration places the probability of a very strong event above 90 per cent. It also estimates a 69 per cent chance that El Ni\u00f1o could exceed the strength of every event recorded since 1950 during the October-to-December period.<\/p>\n
For Caribbean small island developing states, the danger could arrive without a hurricane. The WMO forecasts unusually high temperatures across the region, with drier-than-normal conditions possible in parts of the Caribbean during August to October.<\/p>\n
Prolonged heat and reduced rainfall could strain reservoirs, agriculture and electricity systems, increase cooling costs and worsen wildfire risk. Exceptionally warm seas may also damage coral reefs, fisheries and tourism-dependent coastal economies.<\/p>\n
El Ni\u00f1o generally suppresses Atlantic hurricanes by increasing wind shear, and NOAA forecasts a 55 per cent chance of a below-normal 2026 season. That is no guarantee of safety. Even a quiet season can produce a devastating storm.<\/p>\n
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo has called for \u201cexceptional preparation\u201d, warning governments: \u201cWe have no time to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UN Chief warns of severe global weather impacts as powerful El Ni\u00f1o escalates challenges for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}