'Super' El Niño could bring more extreme weather

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Oh, God. The world is in for an El Niño event, driven by warmer than average waters in the Pacific Ocean. This year, that global weather pattern could be more severe than normal. Something meteorologists call a super El Niño. We are saying is that El Niño is likely to happen, and this event will be strong.

[00:00:22]That means some countries will see severe flooding, while others will be hit with hotter heat waves and even drier droughts.

[00:00:29]El Niños happen every 2 to 7 years. In Canada, that will likely mean above average winter temperatures.

[00:00:37]In British Columbia, areas like this lake in the interior are already under special management due to low snowpack and persistent dry conditions. A super El Niño would be the first in a decade, and a new report has a warning about forests in Canada, the US, Australia, and the Amazon. The likelihood of harmful extreme fires potentially um could be the highest we've seen in recent history if a strong El Niño does develop.

[00:01:04]There has already been a record-breaking start to the global fire season. More than 150 million hectares burned worldwide between January and April. But experts say El Niño is not the reason to freak out. El Niño is a natural phenomenon. It comes and goes.

[00:01:22]Climate change, on the contrast, gets worse and worse and worse as long as we do not stop burning fossil fuels.

[00:01:30]Scientists say adding El Niño on top of an already warming world will likely result in 2027 being a record-breaking year, and maybe even 2026, too. It is now no longer uh possible to just say, "Oh, you know, this is just something that the scientists worry about. It doesn't affect normal people." It is affecting normal people. It's affecting them all over the world.

[00:01:52]The El Niño is forecasted to develop in the summer and intensify late fall.

[00:01:57]Whether it will turn into a super El Nino is yet to be seen.