About this episode

This episode explores the mechanics of El Niño and its potential global impacts, featuring expert insights from Ioana Colfescu.

El Niño has begun and forecasters predict a more than 60% chance that the naturally occurring phenomenon could become a very strong, or super El Niño later in 2026. El Niño begins with warmer water in the Pacific Ocean near the equator and can have a cascade of dramatic effects on the world’s weather. But what chain of events has to happen for high temperatures in the Pacific to translate into severe floods, droughts and storms around the world? And what role does climate change play in El Niño? In this episode, Ioana Colfescu , an expert in climate and machine learning at the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh, explains how El Niño works and what it could mean for the world. This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation. If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation , an independent, not-for-profit news organisation. Mentioned in this episode: Voices of the South

People in this episode

Hosts: Gemma Ware, Mend Mariwany

Guest: Ioana Colfescu

Topics covered

• El Niño
• climate change
• weather patterns
• natural phenomena
• global impact
• floods and droughts

Keywords

• El Niño
• super El Niño
• climate change
• weather effects
• Pacific Ocean
• floods
• droughts
• storms

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of St Andrews, University of Edinburgh, The Conversation

Places: Pacific Ocean

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