Warmer Temps on Tap? Experts Make Predictions About a Super El Niño

It's not unusual to hear weather professionals make predictions about the upcoming year. These experts tend to share their thoughts about what we can expect when it comes to things like snowfall totals, record-breaking temperatures, and how strong a hurricane season we can expect. But, there's another weather pattern that also gets discussed when talking about what could potentially be coming our way each year, and it's a little something called El Niño.

El Niño is around 10,000 years old.

And while it may feel like we only recently started hearing about them in the past few decades, it seems like that is largely due to the fact that meteorologists and other weather experts have learned more about them. That, combined with advances in technology, has made it easier to predict the weather each season, including which years will feature El Niño and La Niña weather systems.

That being said, many people are now asking if there will be a super El Niño this year. Here's what we know.

According to Philly Burbs, experts are saying that we may be in store for a super El Niño in 2026. This is a much stronger version of a typical El Niño, which is known for bringing periods of warmer weather to different parts of the world. It's typically the Southeast and Midwest parts of the U.S. that face the brunt of these types of storms, which can see increased rainfall in addition to the rising temperatures.

These weather systems are typically responsible for record-breaking heat, as well.

The publication notes that 2024's highest temperatures on record were largely thanks to this system, which has experts speculating that a supped-up version of an El Niño will once again have us breaking records.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 2024 was the hottest year on record, which amounted to an average temperature that was 34.79 degrees higher than pre-industrial levels, potentially highlighting the impact that climate change is having on our planet.

You may have heard of El Niño, but how does it differ from the other common weather pattern known as La Niña?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that these two serve as opposites of one another. Whereas El Niño brings warmer and wetter weather, La Niña brings drier and cooler air to parts of the U.S. For example, this system is known to bring flooding rains up into the Pacific Northwest and parts of Canada, cooler air to the northeast, and warmer air to the South.

While the experts say that the El Niño pattern is expected to hit sometime around the fall of 2026, it sounds like the last La Niña ended in spring 2026.

As for when we can expect to see it again remains to be seen, since meteorologists still need to observe the changing weather patterns to see what's next.