Met Office warns developing El Niño could become strongest on record

The UK Met Office has warned that an intensifying El Niño event in the Pacific Ocean could become the most severe in over a century, potentially pushing sea surface temperatures more than three degrees Celsius above average. The natural phenomenon, combined with human-driven climate change, makes 2027 "very likely" to become the hottest year on record, according to meteorologists.

The European climate service Copernicus separately confirmed that global extra-polar ocean temperatures reached unprecedented highs in July. The compounding climate drivers are already escalating extreme weather globally, causing severe droughts in the Amazon basin and West Pacific, intense heatwaves and wildfires across Europe, and heavy flooding in parts of Asia. Experts caution that these shifting climate patterns pose growing risks to global food security, energy infrastructure, and trade supply chains.

Sources: BBC News, Bloomberg, France24, STV News, The Guardian.