“El Niño Is Back. And Worse Than Ever.”

Chico Harlan, to Michael Barbaro on The Daily podcast:

in an El Niño year, the sea surface temperatures, the ocean temperatures in that part of the Pacific, rather than gliding down, stays high and sometimes even keeps increasing. And if the gap between the temperatures in a given year — and the usual temperature is 0.5 Celsius, a pretty small threshold — that is an El Niño. If the gap between the water temperatures is two Celsius greater than usual, then you have a super El Niño.

And, Michael, this year we could be heading even for a three-degree gap, which is beyond what we’ve ever seen before.

Yikes.

El Niño Is Back. And Worse Than Ever.

The recurring climate phenomenon is poised this year to enter a new phase known as a super El Niño, exacerbating the effects of climate change.