Bob Henson

Additional rounds of severe weather are in the forecast through early next week.

Help us welcome Irene Sans to the Eye on the Storm team.

We get into it: Why some meteorologists don't like the term 'super El Niño,' why climate change can lead to El Niño surprises, and more.

This natural weather phenomenon, part of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, occurs when warmer-than-average water extends throughout most of the equatorial Pacific Ocean just below the surface. That’s happening now. And powerful bursts of westerly wind have pushed immense amounts of warm water eastward, toward the Niño3.4 region where sea surface temperature, along with other atmospheric conditions, is used to assess the state of ENSO.

French climate scientist Christophe Cassou said the heat wave would have been virtually impossible in the preindustrial era.

The inland extent of watches and warnings will now be included, and an experimental cone will capture more areas at risk.

A listing of 28 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 24, 2026 thru Sat, May 30, 2026.

It might have seemed exotic when it first appeared, but the forecast “cone of uncertainty” used by the NOAA/NWS National Hurricane Center (NHC) is now a familiar part of tropical cyclone readiness in U.S. states and territories. For 2026, NHC has made a couple of key tweaks to its standard cone product. It’s also testing an expanded version of the cone – one made feasible by a new way of understanding how and where forecast errors arise.

As it slogs northeastward, the system may become a tropical depression or tropical storm – but flooding is a real threat regardless.

Climate change is making extremely dangerous heat waves like this one more common.