Once every few years, the Pacific Ocean rewrites the rules of global weather — and in 2026, it has done so with unusual force. A powerful El Niño has stilled the Atlantic hurricane season to a historic quiet, while simultaneously feeding fiercer storms across the Pacific and bending monsoon patterns that billions depend upon. Nature's balance, it seems, is not a matter of less suffering overall, but of where that suffering travels — and a warming world is ensuring the bill grows larger wherever it lands.
Historic El Niño suppresses Atlantic hurricanes while Pacific storms intensify
Extreme heat from El Niño combined with climate change could cause nearly half a million additional deaths worldwide during this period, especially in the Global South.