2023–24 El Niño event

The 2023–2024 El Niño was regarded as the fourth-most powerful El Niño–Southern Oscillation events in recorded history, resulting in widespread droughts, flooding and other natural disasters across the globe. The onset was declared on 4 July 2023 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) It is estimated that the most significant meteorological effects will occur between November 2023 and April 2024 and their characteristics will be determined depending on each territory on the planet, within which droughts, heavy rains, wildfires, heat waves, tropical cyclones, flooding and changes in wind patterns. These events have already negatively affected the economic activities of agriculture and fishing, generating shortages and rising prices of food—especially rice, palm oil, sugar cane, soybeans and corn—and, therefore, an increase in food insecurity of the most vulnerable populations.

Climate scientists say the 2023–24 El Niño event, exacerbated by the climate change crisis, will likely raise average global temperatures beyond the record set in 2016—during the 2014-2016 El Niño event—and will set new records for temperature in 2024, exceeding the 1.5 °C increase since pre-industrial times.