This week's science news was awash with alarming updates from the world's oceans, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declaring the official onset of El Niño.
El Niño is the warm phase of a multiyear natural climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean that supercharges temperatures across the globe, and this one is looking to be particularly strong, earning it the unofficial moniker of a "super" El Niño. Just how intense is it? It will likely become the strongest in history, most climate models predict, and it may have profound effects on rainfall, wildfires and agricultural yields across the planet.