Full Breakdown
UN Warns of Unprecedented El Niño Strength and Humanitarian Risks
By Drooid · · How we work
Record-Breaking Forecast
On October 21, 2026, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said the current El Niño could become “unprecedented in strength,” with sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific projected to rise about 3.8 °C above average between November and January.
Projected Humanitarian Impact
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher warned that the extreme heat, droughts and floods associated with such a strong El Niño could expose around 50 million people to heightened hunger. He highlighted that the damage would extend beyond the immediate path of the phenomenon, creating “massive humanitarian consequences” across Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
International Response and Funding
Fletcher announced that the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund has released more than $50 million to support preparedness in eleven frontline countries, including Chad, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan. He called on governments, development banks and other financiers to mobilize additional resources “before that damage is done,” emphasizing that the window for effective action remains open but will close as extreme weather intensifies.
Verbatim Quotes
- “The current El Nino event could be unprecedented in strength. Literally off the monitoring charts that we have used for the past four decades,” — Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
- “This will have far-reaching consequences for weather patterns across the world,” — Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
- “This El Nino is the behemoth, it is a wrecking ball. It will tear through Latin America, Eastern and Southern Africa, Asia and the Pacific with extreme heat, droughts and flood,” — Tom Fletcher, UN aid chief
- “The choice is clear: we can wait for disaster or we can invest in resilience. We cannot prevent El Nino but we can be serious about the challenges ahead.” — Tom Fletcher, UN aid chief
- “I'm sounding the alarm that the humanitarian system, this community of ours, cannot alone cope with a threat on this scale,” — Tom Fletcher, UN aid chief