El Niño is now stronger than at any point in the last 1,000 years, study finds
Summary
Ars Technica reports on a Scientific study using fossil coral records showing that El Niño in the eastern Pacific is stronger now than at any point in the last millennium. The researchers reconstructed a thousand-year ocean temperature history from Galápagos corals and found a shift toward warmer El Niño events with greater variability, suggesting a significant role for human-driven warming in intensifying ENSO swings. The findings imply more extreme hydrological impacts in a warming world and highlight challenges for climate models to capture century-scale ENSO dynamics.