Pacific heat raises risk of super El Niño (opens in new tab)

A developing El Niño in the equatorial Pacific is showing signs of exceptional strength after NOAA declared the event on June 11. In the Niño 3.4 monitoring region, sea surface temperatures in early June averaged 29.4°C, 1.7°C above the 30-year average and the largest June warm anomaly since 1981, according to reported observations. NASA’s Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite recorded a band of higher-than-usual sea levels on June 8, showing a Kelvin wave of warm water stretching hundreds of...