On Thursday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the El Niño that started in March 2015 is now over. "There's nothing left," said Mike Halpert, NOAA Climate Prediction Center deputy director. "Stick a fork in it, it's done."
The El Niño, which is a natural warming of parts of the central Pacific that causes weather changes around the world, was responsible for droughts in parts of India and Africa and one reason why the Pacific saw a record hurricane season. Global temperatures are also about 0.8 degrees warmer than after the 1998 El Niño. Halpert said this year's El Niño will go down as one of the three strongest on record, The Associated Press reports, and NOAA coral reef watch coordinator Mark Eakin said this El Niño caused "some of the worst coral bleaching and death of any event we've ever seen. We've had enough of this."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctionsThe Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
-
Cracks appear in MAGA's pro-Israel frontIN THE SPOTLIGHT As the world watches a humanitarian crisis unfold across Gaza, some of Israel's most staunchly conservative defenders have begun speaking out against its actions in the occupied territories
-
5 cultural trails to traverse by carThe Week Recommends Leave the hiking shoes at home
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves babyspeed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
-
Sea lion proves animals can keep a beatspeed read A sea lion named Ronan beat a group of college students in a rhythmic dance-off, says new study
-
Humans heal much slower than other mammalsSpeed Read Slower healing may have been an evolutionary trade-off when we shed fur for sweat glands
-
Novel 'bone collector' caterpillar wears its preySpeed Read Hawaiian scientists discover a carnivorous caterpillar that decorates its shell with the body parts of dead insects
-
Scientists find hint of alien life on distant worldSpeed Read NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected a possible signature of life on planet K2-18b
