El Niño warnings are not exaggerated, according to environment journalists Jonathan Watts and Gabrielle Canon, who answered reader questions about the climate pattern and its global consequences. The two reporters addressed concerns ranging from what to expect this winter in the United Kingdom to the rising risk of natural disasters, making clear that the current El Niño is a significant event with far-reaching effects.
One reader asked whether the likelihood of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, shutting down is unrelated to El Niño. Watts rejected that premise, saying the two phenomena are connected through the vast amounts of extra energy the oceans are absorbing because of greenhouse gas emissions. He described AMOC as a system of ocean currents that carries heat into the northern Atlantic. Warm surface water from the tropics flows north, releases heat south of Greenland and west of Britain and Ireland, then cools and sinks to depths of 2,000 to 3,000 metres before returning south as a cold current.
Watts noted that AMOC is one of the planet’s largest heat transport systems, moving the equivalent of 50 times human energy use. It has a particularly strong influence on Europe’s climate and affects the ocean’s uptake of carbon dioxide, its oxygen supply, and rainfall patterns in the tropics. Both El Niño and a slowdown of AMOC, he said, are linked to the staggering amounts of energy the oceans are being forced to absorb as a result of burning fossil fuels.
Canon explained the origins of the name El Niño, which predates modern forecasting. Fishermen off the coast of South America tracked unusually warm water that appeared every few years around Christmas, calling it «The Little Boy» in reference to the Christ child. Scientists later adopted the name and added La Niña for the cooling counterpart, together known as ENSO, the El Niño Southern Oscillation. This year, Canon said, it would be fair to call it «El Monstruo Gordo» — a big one.
The discussion reflects growing attention to how El Niño reshapes weather far beyond the tropical Pacific. The pattern can influence storms, rainfall, drought, and temperature extremes across multiple continents, with consequences for agriculture, water supplies, and disaster preparedness. The reporters’ answers emphasized that the phenomenon does not operate in isolation but interacts with long-term climate trends driven by greenhouse gas emissions.
In the Atlantic, El Niño has contributed to an unusually quiet hurricane season so far, though forecasters warn that the first Atlantic hurricane of the year is now expected to impact the southern United States. That development illustrates how El Niño can suppress some storm activity while other regions face heightened risks, and why scientists urge continued vigilance rather than dismissal of warnings as hype.
The exchange also highlighted the broader scientific context in which El Niño is studied. Researchers continue to refine models of ocean-atmosphere interaction, and the behavior of AMOC remains a major area of investigation because of its potential to alter European climate, tropical rainfall, and marine ecosystems. Watts’s response made clear that understanding El Niño requires accounting for the ocean’s role as a massive store of heat and carbon.
For readers, the practical message was that this El Niño is a major event whose effects will vary by region and season. The reporters fielded questions about winter conditions in the UK and the increasing risk of natural disasters, underscoring that preparedness and public awareness remain essential as the pattern unfolds. The answers did not treat the warnings as alarmism but as a reflection of measurable changes in the climate system.