The United Nations calls the strongest El Niño on record a behemoth and appeals for help before the damage lands

"This El Niño is a behemoth. It is a wrecking ball," Tom Fletcher, the United Nations' emergency relief chief, said on Wednesday. "It will tear through Latin America, eastern and southern Africa, Asia and the Pacific with extreme heat, droughts and floods, and that has massive humanitarian consequences: 50 million people could face increased hunger." El Niño is the natural warming of Pacific Ocean surface waters that shifts rainfall around the planet, bringing drought to some regions and flooding to others. This event is already at record strength, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center has said, and it is expected to keep intensifying over the coming months.

Celeste Saulo, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, said the event could be "unprecedented in strength" and "literally off the monitoring charts" that have been used for the past four decades. She said it will peak toward the end of 2026, but its effects will be felt long after. Climate scientist Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania called it the biggest event on record, with the caution that reliable records reach back less than a century.

The appeal put numbers and deadlines on the warning. Fletcher cited African Development Bank estimates that El Niño will cost African countries between 10 and 20 billion dollars and cut their economic output by one to two percent, as of October 21. He said the next two weeks are critical. Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya need funding and emergency supplies in place before heavy rains arrive. In southern Africa the priority is seed deliveries and protection for livestock. Central America needs immediate support to protect livelihoods. The UN is asking for the money before the weather arrives, which is the part of disaster relief that usually comes last.