El Niño – a natural climate pattern marked by warmer than average ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean – has gripped the planet since the start of last summer. It reached super status earlier this year after boosting temperatures during the hottest year on record and influencing other global weather events.
El Niño’s lasting impact
El Niño arrived in June of 2023 and eventually became one of the strongest on record. It influenced the world during its year-long lifetime.
Most notably, El Niño helped push both air and ocean temperatures to record levels globally. Every month from June 2023 to May 2024 was the world’s hottest such month on record, CNN previously reported.
Global ocean temperatures first climbed to record breaking levels in March 2023 and have remained at historic levels since then.
Despite records starting before El Niño arrived on the scene, the toasty climate pattern only exacerbated the situation as record heat in the air seeped into the oceans.
The natural climate pattern also influenced many significant weather events since last summer.
El Niño likely had a hand in hot and dry conditions in northern South America that brought the Amazon River to record-low levels in October, the US Lower 48’s hottest ever winter and severe drought in large portions of central and southern Africa this winter.
Parts of Africa’s east coast typically record more rain during El Niño events, but excessive rainfall unfolded to devastating, deadly effect in Kenya in April and May.
California and the western US also typically pick up more rain during El Niño, especially over the winter months. That played out this past winter when multiple powerful atmospheric river events slammed the West Coast.
Further research is needed to determine El Niño’s full impact over the last 12 months, but these events are proof of the highly influential pattern’s reach.
