El Nino reaches century-high intensity, threatens more extreme weather in 2027

AI Summary

El Nino has reached century-high intensity, prompting Central American countries including Panama, Honduras, and El Salvador to declare emergencies. The weather pattern is disrupting shipping through the Panama Canal and contributing to erratic global weather and rising temperatures in a record hot year.

Panama on Tuesday became the latest Central American country, after Honduras and El Salvador, to declare an emergency over El Nino, which has already forced a reduction in shipping through the Panama Canal. El Nino is a weather pattern that raises surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, generating global changes in winds and rainfall as well as erratic weather conditions. It is also nudging up global temperatures in a year predicted to be the hottest on record.