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A report published Wednesday by researchers at the University of Chicago’s Climate Impact Lab estimates that extreme heat fueled by this year’s “Super El Niño” event could kill more than 450,000 people in the coming months, in addition to deaths from drought, wildfires, and other extreme weather.

The report notes that “anomalously warm conditions” caused by the record-shattering El Niño — which refers to the warming of ocean-surface temperatures in the Pacific — “will resemble the higher temperatures that climate change is projected to deliver 20 years in the future … and will lead to 44% more extremely hot days than we would expect in a normal year.”

Climate Impact Lab researchers projected that the extreme heat will result in 451,000 more lives lost through February 2027, compared to a typical year.

“This is about 65 times larger than the 6,800 people believed to be dead or missing from the recent Nepal flash flood,” the new report observes. “With current forecasts suggesting El Niño will remain in place through spring 2027, we expect all of these numbers to grow even higher, particularly as impacts such as........

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