El Niño

Researchers are producing new corals using the genes of those more resilient to heat, they've established two gene banks and they are doing cooling experiments, like canopies that float on the water.

Researchers are moving some corals to deeper, cooler depths, while more sensitive ones go to a temperature-controlled lab. Others will have to tough out the heat.

A strengthening El Niño over the Pacific Ocean may be already influencing Florida's weather, with long-range outlooks indicating a return to below-average rainfall.

An El Niño has formed amid the warmer-than-normal waters in the tropical Pacific. Now it's a question of how intense the phenomenon will be and where effects like heat and drought will strike.

Since reliable global temperature records began in the 1950s, Earth's warmest years have occurred during El Niño events, while the coolest years have typically coincided with La Niña conditions.

Forecasters believe a strengthening El Niño pattern is likely to emerge in 2026 and continue into winter, thus influencing temperature and precipitation trends across the United States.

NOAA’s outlook for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season predicts below-normal activity as an impending El Niño will lead to increased wind shear across the basin.

A developing El Niño could affect Florida in two major ways: fewer Atlantic hurricanes, followed by a wetter, stormier winter with greater severe weather risk. NOAA says El Niño over a 60% chance of developing in summer 2026, with a 1-in-3 chance of becoming strong by late fall.

La Niña officially emerged in September 2025 and lasted until April. Neutral conditions are present, but an El Niño is expected to emerge later in 2026.

A transition into neutral and even an El Niño status in 2026 will have significant climate impacts across the U.S. and around the world.

The official forecast for the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season was issued by the NHC and it calls for a very active season with the presence of La Niña and record-breaking warm sea surface ocean temperatures.

El Niño helped drive global average temperatures to new records over the last year. Forecasters say it's waning, but that 2024 may still be one for the record books.