El Nino is back, ocean temperatures are already near record highs – that can spell disaster for fish, corals

WASHINGTON: (Jun 15) It’s official: El Nino is back. By late fall 2026, forecast models give a 2-in-3 chance of a strong-to-very strong El Nino affecting the weather, climate and ocean temperatures across the planet.

El Nino is the climate system’s biggest player and one side of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO. It’s the heads to La Nina’s tails.

During El Nino, a swath of ocean stretching about 10,000 kilometres westward off the coast of Ecuador warms for months on end, typically by about 1 to 2 degrees Celsius. A few degrees may not seem like much, but in that part of the world, it’s more than enough to completely reorganise wind, rainfall and temperature patterns all over the planet.