The powerful El Niño heating the planet has broken a 150-year temperature record months before the climate phenomenon is expected to peak.
According to The Guardian, temperatures in the central Pacific at the heart of El Niño have reached 3.05C above the 1991-2020 average, surpassing the previous record of 3.02C set in November 2015.
Forecasts suggest the temperature could reach 4C in November and December, based on an average of 14 climate models assessed by scientist Zeke Hausfather.
An El Niño above 2C is classified as a super El Niño and Hausfather described the forecast as “mind-blowing”, while other experts have called the event “Godzilla-level”.
Scientists say the phenomenon is adding further heat to already rising global temperatures caused by human-driven climate change and could be the strongest event in at least 1,000 years.
“This event is a huge redistribution of energy in the climate system and is dangerous because it is unfolding on top of a much warmer, human-influenced climate system,” Imperial College London professor Friederike Otto told The Guardian.
The effects are already being felt worldwide, including wildfires in Indonesia, weaker monsoon rains in India and drought in Central America and the Caribbean.
The World Food Programme has warned El Niño’s impacts could push about 50 million people into acute hunger.
