This year's El Niño weather pattern will be the biggest in over a century and could make 2027 the hottest year globally, Britain's national weather agency predicted Friday.An El Niño weather event happens when warming sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific trigger worldwide changes in winds, atmospheric pressure and rainfall, as well as higher global temperatures overall.
Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the weather agency, told the BBC: "We are expecting the biggest El Niño for over a century, peaking at something over three degrees; that is unheard of in modern climate records."
This means Pacific water would heat up more than 3 degrees Celsius above the norm in the coming months.
El Niño occurs when water temperatures rise at least 0.5 degrees above the baseline. While it is part of a natural cycle, scientists agree climate change increases its impacts.
A record El Niño would be "adding to the stresses of climate change" following a summer of heatwaves across Europe, the Met Office said in a blog.
