Inside Climate News: As El Niño Approaches, Scientists Predict Fierce Heatwaves, Wildfires and Floods

Emerging Pacific Ocean heat, combined with ongoing human-caused global warming, is a grim recipe for deadly climate extremes. Heat alone already kills more than 500,000 annually. Researchers said that the consequences of a moderate or strong El Niño today are more damaging than those of similar events just a few decades ago because the entire global climate system is now substantially warmer. If the projected El Niño emerges on top of that warmer climate, there is a “serious risk of unprecedented weather extremes” that would not have happened during similar historical El Niños, said Fredi Otto, a professor in climate science at Imperial College London. Learn MORE.