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Everything We Know About the Monster El Niño That Could Make the Whole World Even Hotter in 2026

A surge of warm water in the tropical Pacific could fuel a major El Niño event, potentially supercharging global heat and extreme weather.

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It’s mid-spring here in my home of South Florida, and it’s already punishingly hot. It’s only May, but the temperatures are already routinely climbing into the 90s. If the latest climate forecasts are correct, we’re all about to suffer through one of the hottest stretches in recorded history thanks to a potentially monstrous super El Niño building in the Pacific Ocean.

Climate Brief, an organization that translates climate research from leading climate-study organizations such as NASA and NOAA, says that an enormous mass of warm water is surging eastward across the tropical Pacific. It’s fueling what could become the strongest El Niño event ever observed. Some........

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