El Niño will become very strong, WMO says

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is the weather agency^*1 of the United Nations. On September 3, it gave its newest forecast^*2 for El Niño^*3.

The WMO says El Niño will get stronger in the next few months. It will become "very strong." The chance that it will continue until February 2027 is "near 100%."

Scientists watch the sea temperature in one part of the ocean. They call this measure the Niño 3.4 index^*4. In July, the water there was 2.0 degrees Celsius^*5 warmer than normal. In the middle of August, it was between 2.2 and 2.6 degrees warmer than normal each week. From July to early August, the water under the surface^*6 in some areas was more than 8 degrees warmer than normal.

António Guterres, the head of the United Nations, said, "The planet^*7 is in unknown waters, and those waters are getting warmer."

Celeste Saulo is the head of the WMO. She said the WMO is now working with the weather services^*8 of many countries to prepare for El Niño. This is the biggest effort of this kind in the 50 years of the WMO's history.

1. *1 agency: an office or group that does one kind of work
2. *2 forecast: a report that says what will probably happen in the future
3. *3 El Niño: a time when the sea in the middle of the Pacific Ocean becomes warmer than usual, and this changes the weather in many parts of the world
4. *4 Niño 3.4 index: a number that shows how much warmer or colder the sea is than normal in one part of the Pacific Ocean
5. *5 degrees Celsius: a measure of how hot or cold something is; water freezes at 0 and boils at 100
6. *6 surface: the top of the water
7. *7 planet: a big round body in space; the Earth is a planet
8. *8 weather services: the offices in each country that watch the weather and tell people about it