Climate Warming Amplifies El Niño Variability in the Eastern Pacific

A study published in the journal Science analyzed millennium-long records from Galápagos corals, revealing that El Niño events are intensifying as the Earth warms. The findings show that El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability in the eastern Pacific is now approximately 36.5% higher than in the pre-industrial era.

This indicates that climate change is already amplifying one of the world's most significant sources of extreme weather, posing growing risks to ecosystems, infrastructure, and human societies. ENSO is the primary driver of year-to-year climate extremes, associated with droughts, floods, wildfires, coral bleaching, and impacts on agriculture and human health. The phenomenon originates from complex interactions between the tropical Pacific and the atmosphere.

In recent decades, several unusually strong El Niño events have occurred, with their warming extent covering much of the tropical Pacific.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady2660 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1141187?language=chinese