El Niño has strengthened significantly over the past month and is expected to intensify through the end of 2026, with NOAA forecasters warning there is now an 81% chance the climate pattern could rank among the strongest El Niño events observed since records began in 1950.
A strengthening El Niño and a persistent cool sea-surface-temperature anomaly in the subpolar North Atlantic, associated with the feature known in climate research as the North Atlantic warming hole, may influence large-scale atmospheric circulation during early Winter 2026–27 across North America and Europe, according to seasonal forecast guidance from major international forecasting centers.
Severe flooding caused by Tropical Cyclone Maysak left 2 people dead in Nanning, Guangxi, on July 6, 2026, after extreme rainfall caused Liulan and Yunbiao reservoirs in Hengzhou to overtop and develop breaches. The Nanning flood-control briefing reported about 55 000 people affected and 48 000 evacuated, as of late Monday, July 7.
LaGuardia Airport recorded an official temperature of 34.4°C (94°F) around midnight into July 4, 2026, establishing the station’s highest midnight temperature on record as an intense heat wave affected New York City and much of the northeastern United States. According to National Weather Service observations, the reading surpassed the previous midnight record of 33.9°C (93°F) set on July 18, 2013. The National Weather Service maintained Extreme Heat Warnings across much of the New York metropolitan area as dangerous heat persisted through the overnight hours.
Mutnovsky volcano in southern Kamchatka, Russia, produced an ash explosion at 20:19 UTC on July 1, 2026 (08:19 LT on July 2), marking its first documented eruption since July 3, 2013. KVERT reported that the approximately 3-minute event generated an ash plume up to 3.5 km (11 500 feet) above sea level, extending about 10 km (6 miles) west of the volcano.
Asteroid (152637) 1997 NC1 will pass Earth at 6.67 lunar distances (about 0.017 AU), or 2.5 million km (1.6 million miles) above Earth’s surface, at 11:16 UTC on June 27, 2026. The object has an estimated diameter between 750–1 650 m (2 460–5 410 feet), making this an unusually close encounter for an object of this size. The Virtual Telescope Project will stream the flyby live at 23:00 UTC on June 26 and 27, offering real-time views as the asteroid reaches peak brightness.
Large floating pumice accumulations from the Titan Ridge submarine eruption have inundated coastal villages in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea, this week, blocking sea access and preventing boat movement.
El Niño conditions have developed in the tropical Pacific Ocean and are expected to strengthen through the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2026-27, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) issued an El Niño Advisory on June 11, 2026, after oceanic and atmospheric conditions shifted into an El Niño pattern.
A fireball detected over the South Atlantic Ocean at 02:13:14 UTC on April 1, 2026, has emerged as a candidate interstellar meteor following an orbital analysis by Avi Loeb and Richard Cloete, who argue that its trajectory is inconsistent with an origin within the Solar System. The object, designated Polar-IM, is described by Loeb and Cloete as the strongest interstellar meteor candidate yet identified in the NASA Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) fireball database, with a confidence level above 99.9997% under the researchers’ uncertainty model.
Kīlauea’s ongoing summit eruption reached its 48th lava-fountaining episode in Halemaʻumaʻu crater, Hawaii, at 04:40 HST (14:40 UTC) on June 1, 2026, setting a written-record benchmark for episodic lava fountaining during a single Kīlauea eruption, according to the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). The episode ended abruptly at 13:37 HST (23:37 UTC) after just under 9 hours of continuous fountaining from the north vent, and the eruption was paused afterward.
