Study: El Niño Intensifying Due to Global Warming

A new study published in the journal Science on August 27, 2026, reveals that El Niño events have intensified significantly over the past 40 years, a change researchers attribute to human-caused global warming. The research, based on a millennium-long record from coral skeletons in the Galápagos Islands, indicates that recent El Niño strength is unprecedented in the last 1,000 years and carries major implications for future climate extremes.

The study’s lead author, Julia Cole, a professor at the University of Michigan, explained that the findings show a clear pattern of amplification. “We don’t see a time in the past where El Niños have been as strong as today, and we show that the strength of El Niño changes in parallel with the warming of global temperature,” Cole said. The research indicates that the swings in sea surface temperatures associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle were relatively stable during the preindustrial period from 1000 to 1850. Variability began rising in the late 19th century and has shown “striking amplification” over the last four decades.

To reconstruct past climate conditions, scientists analyzed 13 ancient and modern coral cores...