World
El Niño is associated with weaker monsoons in India – but research suggests it can also bring more extreme rainfall
This story summarizes reporting from The Guardian. Read the original for full context. Wire items stay in our news sitemap for seven days. Editorial policy.
Read full story on The Guardian →
News — Kate Ravilious
The world is bracing for a “super” El Niño, and its effects are already being felt in India, where the monsoon has brought less rain than average but more intense downpours.
Meteorologists predict that the current El Niño , which is developing over the Pacific, could be one of the strongest in living memory. India is likely to be heavily affected, particularly later in the monsoon, when El Niño’s influence tends to strengthen.
But, as Ligin Joseph of the University of Southampton explains in The Conversation , its effects on India’s monsoon are not straightforward. A previous study in Science found that El Niño tends to bring more extreme summer monsoon rainfall to India.
This year, the southern state of Kerala has felt the brunt of the building super El Niño, with about a fifth less rain than normal. Yet intense downpours in the first week of August triggered flash flooding and landslides , killing 26 people.
The super El Niño is expected to peak after India’s monsoon season, but Indians are already keeping an anxious eye on the skies, wondering where and when the next deluge may come.
Meteorologists predict that the current El Niño , which is developing over the Pacific, could be one of the strongest in living memory. India is likely to be heavily affected, particularly later in the monsoon, when El Niño’s influence tends to strengthen.
This report is published with credit to The Guardian. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on The Guardian →
Source: The Guardian · Kate Ravilious. Published 3 Sept 2026, 05:00 am.
Most relevant
Mike Tyson kept pigeons as a bullied Brooklyn boy; decades later, he still has hundreds
Read on Times of India →Editor’s choice
China's President Xi Jinping visits Egypt this week for the first time in a decade. The trip illustrates China's growing ambitions at a time when U.S. influence has been weakened by its war in Iran.
Read on NPR →Also developing
Guy Ritchie’s crime caper is back with the usual hijinks, swearing and men shaking their fists. But its ridiculousness is strangely comforting – and Theo James’s beefcake Eddie is so bland that he is fascinating to observe
Read on theguardian.com →