GoKawiil
Tech News
Heavy rainfall tied to El Niño conditions has caused severe flooding across Florida and the Four Corners area of the southwestern US, even before winter officially begins. The flooding comes amid forecasts that this year's El Niño pattern could bring unusually wet and volatile weather to large parts of the country.
Scientists conducting a nine-month expedition around the Galápagos Islands did not record a single blue whale sighting. The absence coincides with a strong El Niño event affecting ocean conditions in the region.
Unusually high 'king tides' during the last week of October drove record-level water along the Southern California coast, flooding the Redondo Beach boardwalk and pushing San Diego tide levels above 8 feet. NOAA says some readings were among the highest recorded in over a century, with forecasters noting the influence of a developing El Niño pattern.
Researchers point to a powerful El Niño weather pattern as a driver of higher atmospheric CO2 this year, citing Indonesia's peatland wildfires as one visible example of the phenomenon's carbon impact. The event is described as intensifying natural processes that release additional carbon dioxide beyond typical annual increases.
Record-high king tides this week caused flooding along San Francisco's coastline, according to experts cited in the report. Officials warn these are not yet the year's highest tides, with more severe flooding expected once El Niño-driven winter storms arrive.
The United Nations Environmental Programme has for the first time acknowledged that the 2015 Paris Agreement target of limiting warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels can no longer be met. UNEP's new framework instead focuses on minimizing both the duration and magnitude of overshoot past that threshold, requiring steep near-term emissions cuts alongside large-scale removal of hundreds of gigatonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere before 2100.
A strong El Niño event has raised ocean temperatures along the California coastline, allowing marine species that typically avoid the region's cooler waters to appear in greater numbers. Sightings include warm-water fish and other organisms not usually found in the area, according to observations tied to the current climate pattern.
Climate scientists report that current El Niño conditions have already pushed sea levels in parts of the Pacific up by as much as 1.3 feet due to thermal expansion of warming ocean water. Researchers warn this effect is expected to intensify further as a result of lunar gravitational cycles influencing tides.
NOAA released its winter forecast this week, saying a strong El Niño pattern will heavily influence precipitation and temperature trends across the U.S. The agency's outlook maps show wetter-than-average conditions expected across southern states while parts of the northern U.S. are likely to see below-normal precipitation.
Authorities in Ecuador have intercepted more than 48 Galápagos marine iguanas from wildlife traffickers since May, according to reports. Scientists are warning that this surge in trafficking, combined with the possibility of a severe El Niño weather event, could pose a serious threat to the species' population.
Hurricane Simon has pushed the 2026 Pacific hurricane season to new records for both overall storm activity and individual storm intensity, according to reports tracking the season. Forecasters note the season is not yet finished, meaning further storms could still develop.
A new BioScience paper led by Oregon State University's Bill Ripple finds seven of 16 planetary vital signs monitored by researchers are at their most extreme levels ever recorded, including atmospheric CO2, which is 50% above preindustrial levels, and record-low Greenland and Antarctic ice combined with record-high ocean heat. The study also reports warming has accelerated from roughly 0.05°C per decade between 1880-1970 to 0.36°C per decade since 2010.