The peak of the El Niño natural phenomenon is expected at the end of the year, but its consequences will be felt for a long time. Celeste Saulo, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), operating in the UN structure, announced this. According to HOC forecasts, from November 2026 to January 2027 in the tropical Pacific, at the epicenter of El Niño, the temperature of the surface layer of water may increase by 3.8 degrees above average. "This directly exceeds all the indicators we recorded in the last four decades. The peak of El Niño will be registered at the end of 2026, but its consequences will be felt for a long time," said Saulo. The HOC reminded that the powerful El Niño "disrupts the usual thermal regimes and precipitation pattern in many regions". It can lead to severe droughts in some parts of the world, heavy rains and floods in others, and abnormal heat in vast areas. Extreme weather phenomena have already been recorded in a number of places, and it is expected that with the strengthening of El Niño, their number will increase, and the consequences will become more large-scale, the organization stated. Above-normal rainfall is expected in a number of regions of East Africa, increasing the risk of flooding. In South Africa, on the contrary, there is a high probability of drought, which can negatively affect the harvest. Unprecedented heat and lack of rainfall in Southeast Asia are "increasing the risk of human heatstroke" and putting additional pressure on agriculture and water supply systems. An increase in precipitation is expected in the northwest of the United States and in a number of western regions of South America. Most likely, their level will exceed the norm in the northern part of the Caribbean basin as well. At the same time, there is a serious threat of drought in some regions of Central America, the southern Caribbean and the Amazon basin.