El Niño returns with a new ferocity

America’s National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s announcement in June of the arrival of El Niño has raised alarm bells. One of the three phases in the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), El Niño is a weather pattern that shows up every two-to-seven years. It tends to drive up average global temperatures and bring droughts and wildfires to some regions, while worsening rains and storms in others. This El Niño, layered on top of climate change, could be devastating. How should the world prepare?