El Niño May Be Back This Summer, Bringing Drought and Floods

The Pacific Ocean weather pattern known as El Niño will return this summer, bringing the potential for extreme rainfall, powerful storms and drought across some areas of the globe, although scientists aren’t sure yet how strong it will be. NOAA said the pattern is expected to shift into gear again around June.

El Niño is a pulse of warm water in the central and eastern Pacific along the Equator that emerges when trade winds shift. Normally those winds keep warmer ocean water in the western Pacific, but changing wind patterns allow the warm blob to slosh east toward the coast of South America.

These events appear every three to seven years and typically last nine to 12 months; the last El Niño, in 2022 and 2023, was a major driver of record-breaking global temperatures.

el niño, pacific ocean, noaa, warm water, equator, trade winds, drought, floods, storms, global temperatures