El Niño Isn't at Its Peak. That Makes This Number Significant

El Niño packed a punch in 2015, during which daily sea-surface temps in a significant Pacific region hit a record 3.02C degrees above average that November. This year's El Niño isn't yet at its peak—that's expected in December—and it has already beaten 2015's number. Water in what the Washington Post calls "a sparsely populated portion of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean called the Niño 3.4 region" was 3.05C (5.49F) above average on Saturday.

Some broader gauges of El Niño strength haven't similarly reached highs, reports the BBC, but scientists expect them to as the system builds later this year. Classic El Niño fingerprints are already appearing, including weaker monsoon rains in India, drought in Central America, and a record-late start to the hurricane season in the Atlantic, which has yet to see a hurricane form.