El Niño hits a new record: waters off Peru ran 4.4°C above normal in October
Japan's weather agency says the sea off Peru was 4.4°C warmer than normal in October, beating September's record for the strongest El Niño since records began.
The current El Niño has just broken its own record. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) announced on Tuesday that sea surface temperatures off Peru, in South America, were 4.4°C above the long-term average in October.
That is the largest gap since records began. It also tops September's reading, which had already been the biggest on record.
El Niño is a warming of the sea in the eastern tropical Pacific, and it is considered one of the factors behind extreme weather around the world. The JMA keeps a close watch on the waters off Peru to track it.
In case you missed the earlier steps: the agency declared in June that El Niño conditions had emerged, with sea temperatures off Peru already above normal. In October it reported that September's anomaly was the largest ever recorded.
Now October has gone one better. Each month, the number has pushed the record a little higher.
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Record-strength El Niño event · 3 updates
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