How the body adapts to extreme heat
Image: The New York Times
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Wires & papers of record
- With air and sea surface temperatures already breaking records, this year’s episode is on track to be the strongest in living memory.
- Tuesday 1 September marks the start of the UK storm season and a new list of storm names have been released including Austen, Chloe and Evelyn.
- First big storm of season heads towards Gulf coast and is expected to bring potentially heavy rains Tropical Storm Edouard headed toward the US Gulf coast early on Tuesday and was expected to gain strength before bringing potentially heavy rains and flooding into parts of Texas and Louisiana . The…
- Head of tree collections at Kew ‘very worried about this autumn’ as hot, dry summer has caused brittleness High winds associated with El Niño could cause widespread mortality among tree species already weakened by a prolonged period of extreme heat and drought, experts have warned. This summer…
- The WMO has warned that the natural weather phenomenon could bring disruption to global economies.
- This year's El Niño is expected to be the strongest in living memory and could lead to a range of impacts of the UK - including a stormy autumn.
- Will El Nino bring chaos to UK weather?
- Bureau of Meteorology suggests El Niño has already broken records, with Pacific ocean temperature change exceeding 2C in six months Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here The growing El Niño…
- Exclusive: Angela Eagle urges people to be ‘a bit more resilient’ as she tells UK citizens to plan for national emergencies British people have been urged to have enough food and water on hand to survive a few days without power or water, as the UN said the El Niño climate phenomenon was…
- Predicted hot and dry weather in growing areas in eastern Australia identified as ‘one of the key issues’ that will affect food prices over next 12 months Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The most severe El Niño weather event on record threatens to push food prices…
- Last November, NASA and its European partners launched the Sentinel-6B satellite to improve hurricane forecasts, help protect infrastructure, and benefit commercial industries, including shipping. The satellite now is flying 30 seconds behind its predecessor, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich. Both…
- Sweltering summer temperatures put last month on par with July 2023 for global warmth, scientists said. More records could be broken in the months ahead.
- Climate change and the rising influence of El Niño saw August reach the record for warmest month.
- The European climate service Copernicus said the Earth just sweltered through its hottest month on record in August. Scientists said the heat surge is mostly due to human-caused climate change.
- BBC Weather Presenter Simon King explains the figures.
- We’d like to hear from people about the impact of extreme heat this summer – and if you’ve had your power cut It’s been a record summer of heat in the US with rolling heat domes and July being the hottest month ever recorded in the country , surpassing temperatures stretching back 132 years of…
- Scientists say that August was the hottest month ever recorded globally. In the U.S., summer temperatures also shattered heat records.
- The Atlantic hurricane season has reached its climatological peak, but a strong El Niño means no hurricanes have formed this year.
Coverage
- Fossilized Galápagos corals show clear evidence that today’s El Niños are much stronger than those in the past
- Scientists went to the heart of the El Niño pattern to learn from living and fossil corals. The results show El Niño’s intensifying coincides with global warming.
- “One more warning sign here of what we're facing in a warmer world.”
- After one of the worst natural disasters in the region’s history, attention is turning to the looming super El Niño
- The World Meteorological Organization is warning that the climate phenomenon that has the Pacific running a fever will last until at least February, with dire consequences for weather worldwide.
- The current El Nino could end up being the strongest since records began 40 years ago, the UN warns. It says the phenomenon is being "supersized" thanks to exceptionally warm temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean.
- The World Meteorological Organization says forecasts show 100% likelihood that El Nino will continue through February.
- Limits on the number of vessels in the canal could create shipping delays and increase freight costs.
- Scientists warn the 2026-27 El Nino could become the strongest ever, exacerbating global heat, droughts and floods.
- Canal authorities may further reduce ship traffic if a strengthening El Niño worsens the country's drought.
- The United States had its hottest summer since records began, says NOAA, with August also setting a new heat record.
- The average global temperature in August broke the previous record set in 2023. Climate scientists say record summer heat in the northern hemisphere and warmer oceans are all part of a new normal.
- The looming El Niño conditions, combined with the warming effects of climate change, contributed to the historic temperatures
- El Niño can affect agriculture, marine life and economies in profound ways, including slowing commerce at the Panama Canal. This El Niño is likely to be the strongest in over a century.
- While the strengthening El Niño helped boost temperatures, climate change is the main culprit for making August so hot.
- As heatwaves become more frequent and severe, scientists are studying whether heat acclimation can help protect vulnerable populations.
- Records from the past few decades show that, during this period, El Niño events have been frequent and often extreme. But is this normal, or is it the result of climate change? Corals can give us a clear indication.
- Records from the past few decades show that, during this period, El Nino events have been frequent and often extreme. But is this normal, or is it the result of climate change? Corals can give us a clear indication.
- Records show that El Nino events have been frequent and often extreme over the past few decades. Is this normal? Or is it the result of climate change? Corals can give us a clear indication.
More coverage
- Temperatures have warmed dramatically across the equatorial Pacific Ocean in 2026, signaling the onset of a strong and potentially historic El Niño. These events can affect weather around the world, and the intensity of recent El Niño events is raising alarm that, as global temperatures rise, they…
- A new study suggests that El Ninos—the natural climatic chaos agent that pops up periodically and spikes global temperatures—are getting stronger because of human-caused climate change.
- Europe is no stranger to powerful windstorms, but some storms capable of causing serious damage have an unusual origin. Tropical cyclones can occasionally travel north from lower latitudes and reach Europe, where they can bring damaging winds and heavy rain even after losing some of their tropical…
- Two powerful hurricanes and a strengthening tropical storm on Wednesday were churning through the Pacific Ocean, where waters were being warmed by a historically strong El Niño climate episode.
- A rare trio of hurricanes were churning through the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, which scientists attributed to waters warmed by a historically strong El Niño phenomenon.
- El Niño is forecast to be the strongest since comparable records began four decades ago, the United Nations' climate agency warned Thursday, with the UN chief saying the world was in the "danger zone of extreme weather."
- The Panama Canal will restrict the number of vessels transiting the crucial waterway from Friday for only the second time because of drought caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon.
- El Niño is firmly established and will intensify into a very strong event in the coming months, with major impacts on rainfall and temperature patterns and associated risks of floods, drought and extreme heat, according to a new update from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
- Has El Niño reached the West Coast? You might think it has. After all, the ocean off Southern and Central California is unusually warm. But that warmth is from a recent marine heat wave that predates the current El Niño. Much of the Pacific Coast is experiencing relatively normal conditions while…
- Earth cooked to its hottest month on record in August, blowing far past a key climate threshold, due to the dangerous double whammy of human-caused climate change and a supersized El Niño, according to the European climate service Copernicus.
- In November 2025, NASA and its European partners launched the Sentinel-6B satellite to improve hurricane forecasts, help protect infrastructure and benefit commercial industries, including shipping. The satellite is now flying 30 seconds behind its predecessor, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich. Both…
- Europe's climate monitor said Thursday that August was the hottest month ever recorded worldwide and warned of worse to come as an unprecedented El Niño pattern grows stronger.
- Extreme heat has become more common—both research and lived experience document this—but when it arrives is a different question. A new study finds that, rather than occurring only during warm seasons, extreme heat events have become more frequent in the months before and after, too.
- UK gardens took a battering this summer as a heat dome settled over western Europe, and much of the green and pleasant land turned a dusty beige.
- Life in the deep sea is under immense pressure—literally. Such extreme conditions can disrupt the delicate structures of proteins essential to life. Yet somehow, the proteins in deep-sea creatures remain functional. This raises an intriguing question: how?