El Niño Is Back, and It’s Not Like the Last One

The world is now in an El Niño period, a climate pattern that can raise global temperatures and change rainfall, storms, and drought around the planet. But this El Niño is different from the last strong one. El Niño is a warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean that shifts weather worldwide. The last major El Niño, in 2015–2016, helped push global heat to record levels and caused droughts, floods, and coral bleaching in many regions. This year’s El Niño formed quickly and is expected to grow stronger in the coming months. Scientists say it may combine with long-term global warming, making heat and extreme weather more likely in some areas. The full effects are still uncertain. What happens in the next few months will show how this El Niño compares with past events.