A cargo ship waits before entering the Panama Canal in Panama City on August 8,2026. Panama declared an emergency over El Nino climate phenomenon on August 25, 2026, after Honduras and El Salvador, which has already forced a reduction in shipping through the Panama Canal. Photo: Martin Bernetti / AFP / Lehtikuva
International news
El Niño is strengthening across the Pacific and is expected to persist into early 2027, increasing the risk of heat, drought and flooding across several regions, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
The UN weather agency expects the climate pattern to develop into a “very strong” event and peak around the end of 2026. The likelihood of El Niño continuing through February 2027 is close to 100 per cent.
Measurements from the central tropical Pacific show the scale of the warming. The Niño 3.4 index averaged 1.5°C above normal between May and July and reached 2°C in July. Weekly readings between late July and mid-August rose as high as 2.6°C.
