[Regnum] Due to El Niño, the Pacific Ocean surface water temperature anomaly will approach 200-year record levels. Vladimir Klimenko, a climate scientist, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, professor at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke with Regnum News Agency.
The Pacific Ocean's behavior is divided into three phases, the climatologist noted. The warm period is called El Niño and is accompanied by a rise in ocean surface water temperatures. In 2026, this phenomenon will approach record levels.
"The current El Niño will be one of the strongest in the last 200 years, and perhaps the strongest ever. The most understandable parameter of El Niño behavior is the surface water temperature anomaly. It currently stands at 1.79 degrees. The world record is 2.7," Klimenko explained.
El Niño hasn't yet peaked in 2026. It typically occurs between October and February. According to the climatologist, the natural phenomenon will reach its peak in November—it's still unclear whether temperatures will warm up by one degree to break the record.
"In any case, it will be somewhere near the record. El Niño lasts for about a year—from May to June of the following year. Then there are two options: the phenomenon immediately transitions to a cold phase called La Niño, or the system often transitions to a neutral state," Klimenko noted.
The scientist emphasized that processes occurring in the Pacific Ocean have the greatest impact on North and South America, Southeast Asia, Australia, and South Africa. Neither El Niño nor La Niño have any impact on the climate of virtually all of Russia.
"During a warm period, like now, oddly enough, the extreme eastern borders of our country—Chukotka, Kamchatka, and Primorsky Krai—get colder. But not every season and not very severely. It has no effect on the European part of Russia at all," Klimenko concluded.
Earlier, Andrey Kiselev, a climatologist at the Voeikov Main Geophysical Observatory, noted that after a cold winter, Russia would experience an abnormally hot period. According to the scientist, any season could be warm, including summer or fall.
In July, Alvaro Silva, a scientist with the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO), warned of increased heat due to El Niño. He said the increased temperatures could lead to droughts in various parts of the world, particularly in the Caribbean and Latin America.