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A girl looks on, hands on her hips next to a damaged car buried in mud in an area heavily affected by torrential rains and flash floods in Kenya
Image: LUIS TATO/AFP

El Nino

El Nino is a climate phenomenon characterized by warmer sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean near the equator, with disruptive effects on global weather patterns.

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All Content on this topic

Why is El Nino worst around Christmas?

… asks Edward Hong from Yola, Nigeria
ScienceJune 19, 201601:44 min
Australien Sydney Anti Klimawandel Demonstration

Why aren't Australian voters worried about the environment?

Australia's east coast was recently devastated by storms and flooding, and the iconic Great Barrier Reef is under a major threat from coral bleaching. But as the country gears up for a national election on July 2, do these environmental issues feature in Australia's election campaigns? We talk to Sydney-based journalist Esther Blank.
Nature and EnvironmentJune 16, 201609:23 min
Great Barrier Reef Korallenriff

Mass bleaching of Great Barrier Reef

The impact of mass bleaching is more severe than expected. Large parts of the Great Barrier Reef have been destroyed.
May 30, 201600:48 min
The skull of a dead steer lies on eroded soil

El Nino in Africa

Weather phenomenon El Nino is causing deadly droughts and floods in Africa. These are the worst affected countries.
May 24, 2016
Überschwemmungen in Paraguay Asuncion Reuters/J. Adorno/Files

El Nino-induced floods ravage East Africa

Experts blame the El Nino weather phenomenon for catastrophic incidents in four East African countries.
Nature and EnvironmentMay 9, 2016
A woman walkingin the desert in Ethiopia

UN calls for El Nino response

Over 60 million people have been affected by the atmospheric phenomenon, the UN's humanitarian response agency reported.
April 26, 2016
Malawi Markt Preissteigerung

Malawi declares national disaster over food crisis

Malawi’s PresidentMutharika has declared a state of national disaster over food shortages caused by El Nino.
April 13, 2016
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Chile fish deaths blamed on El Niño

Authorities in Chile searching for answers as more dead fish wash up onto shore
April 12, 201600:57 min
A before and after image of the bleaching in American Samoa (Photo: XL Catlin Seaview Survey)

Threat to Great Barrier Reef corals

Many reefs worldwide face permanent destruction due to coral bleaching. Loss of reefs would impact millions of people.
March 31, 2016
Arctic ice

Arctic winter sea ice cover hits record low

Peak sea ice over this year broke was at a record low. Scientists say it fits a trend linked to global warming.
March 29, 2016
A Zimbabwean subsistence farmer holds a stunted maize cob in his field outside Harare (Photo: Reuters/P. Bulawayo)

On the brink of starvation

Nearly 3 million rural Zimbabweans currently face food insecurity, due to erratic rainfall and long dry spells.
March 23, 2016
A massive glacier (under blue skies) and its reflection in the waters off the coast of Greenland.

Global Warming accelerates; scientists sound alarm

Record January and February temperatures have been highlighted in a new UN-sponsored study.
March 21, 2016
Ethiopia drought

Living with extremes

Ethiopia battles drought and hunger, while the challenge of halting climate change continues. Bus shelters protect against Australian heatwaves - and the ocean island of Kiribati doesn't have enough water to go around.
Nature and EnvironmentMarch 17, 201629:59 min
Simbabwe Nahrungsmittelhilfe

Report: Zimbabwe says millions need food aid

Up to four million people require food assistance in Zimbabwe, Labor and Social Minister Prisca Mupfumira said.
March 15, 2016
Äthiopien Hunger Hungerhilfe

Stranded – Ethiopia’s struggle to feed the needy

Stranded – Ethiopia’s struggle to feed the needy
February 19, 2016
Hunger in Malawi after heavy rains

UNICEF: El Nino effects put one million children at risk

Impact of an El Nino-induced drought on children in Southern Africa. At least onemillion children risk starving
February 18, 2016

Zimbabwe urgently needs $1,5 billion to avert hunger

Zimbabwean government is seeking about $1,5 billion from international donors to avert hunger in that country
February 16, 2016
Local residents await the arrival of the UN secretary-general in Ogolcho in Ethiopia's drought affected Oromia region to tour various UN drought relief projects

Famine looms across Horn of Africa and South Sudan

The UN says millions of people are on the brink of famine across the Horn of Africa and South Sudan.
February 8, 2016
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El Nino puts Ethiopia in dire straights

The current El Niño effect has matched the strongest on record, triggering a serious drought in Ethiopia.
February 3, 201601:39 min
Aedes aegypti mosquito - Zika Virus © Reuters/J. Saldarriaga

Zika and climate change

In an interview, an expert tells DW that the range of the Zika vector is likely to increase due to climate change.
February 3, 2016

Ethiopia's hunger crisis

Ethiopia is facing its worst drought in decades, with crop production falling by up to 90 percent in some regions.
January 27, 2016
Düre in Nordkorea

UNICEF appeals for aid to North Korea

Children in North Korea impacted by drought, UNICEF warns. $18 million (16.6 million euros) in aid is need.
January 26, 2016
Hunger in Malawi

14 million face hunger in southern Africa

The UN has said millions of people could be at risk in Africa as a drought sweeps across parts of the continent.
January 18, 2016
Überschwemmungen in England

Disaster costs fall

In 2015, global insurance companies were facing the lowest costs since 2009 from natural catastrophes.
January 4, 2016
Türkei Istanbul Wetter

Europe's wild weather mix subsiding?

North Atlantic's unseasonal weather tests nerves
December 31, 2015

Is El Niño to blame?

Floods, tornados, droughts - which of those extreme weather events can really be blamed on El Niño?
December 30, 2015
Indien Schwere Überflutungen in Chennai

Slow recovery in India's Chennai after floods

The effects of the devastating floods in India's industrial Chennai region are presenting a challenge to relief agencies
December 6, 2015
children standing next to the skeleton of a cow

Drought in Ethiopia

Ethiopian pastoralists losing their livestock say too little aid is coming from government and donors.
December 4, 2015
Afrika Elektrizität Simbabwe

Zimbabwean power generation in crisis

Zimbabwean power generation hit by low water levels
November 20, 2015
Kenia Afrika Arid Turkana Dürre

El Nino's impact on Africa

El Nino causes extreme weather conditions and triggers hunger disease and wafers shortages
November 17, 2015
Hurrikan "Patricia"

Hurricane Patricia weakens, but still a threat

Hurricane Patricia has caused less damage than expected so far after making landfall on Mexico's Pacific coast.
October 24, 2015
A small plant sprouts in the cracks of dried-up earth

Hot September temperatures break global records

The past September has broken heat records worldwide, the seventh month to do so this year, according to a U.S. report.
October 21, 2015
Coral reef

'Crunch time for corals'

Scientists monitoring a global coral bleaching event say climate change and El Nino pose a major threat to reefs.
October 16, 2015
A before and after image of coral bleaching in American Samoa (Photo: XL Catlin Seaview Survey)

Coral bleaching endangering reefs worldwide

Dramatic new pictures show damage to coral reefs from a "global bleaching event" due to climate change and El Nino.
October 12, 201510 images
Taro plant (photo: picture-alliance/Anka Agency)

Ancient crop to withstand El Nino

The Pacific island of Vanuatu has set out to secure its future food supplies against the background of climate change.
October 8, 201506:38 min
Kolumbien Dürre Wetterphänomen El Nino

Report: El Nino strengthens

Pacific's drought-prone weather anomaly might well linger until early 2016, the experts say.
August 13, 2015
A cargo ship passes through the Panama Canal's Miraflores Locks RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP/Getty Images

Panama Canal bars biggest vessels

The Panama Canal will be temporarily closed to bigger ships owing to a drought that has lowered lakes feeding it.
August 8, 2015
El Nino: Flooding in Peru

Strong El Nino harms ecosystems

The current El Nino is the strongest in more than 10 years, and it's taking its toll on people, eocnomies and wildlife.
July 31, 2015
Bildergalerie Hitzewelle in Europa Italien

Global average temperatures soar

World average temperatures were the hottest in June and during the first six months of this year, according to NOAA.
July 22, 2015

El Nino set to make a comeback

El Nino could return within the next two months, warns the US Weather Service.
May 12, 2015

Climate: Peruvian Farmers Battle Climate Change

Peru's northern coastline is increasingly being battered by storms and other extreme weather linked to climate change. Now together with a local financial establishment, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) has set up an insurance system that helps compensate farmers in the case of damage.
BusinessJuly 15, 201306:42 min
dried-up pond in China due to drought, March 2010

More disasters?

Weather-related insurance losses are up. What does climate change have to do with it?
April 2, 2012
hands over parched earth

Hot weather = war

A study links hot, dry weather periods to civil war, a possible preview of life on a hotter earth.
August 26, 2011
firefighter stands at the site where a landslide buried dozens of homes following weeks of drenching rains in Bello, northwestern Colombia, Sunday Dec. 5, 2010. The Red Cross attributes more than 170 deaths to heavy rains in Colombia so far this year

Clean Colombia

Colombia likes to make out its environmental copycook is unblotted - but is it as green as it looks?
February 1, 2011

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Violent storms have been raging across Europe in the last week, leaving a trail of death and destruction. Scientists are blaming the unusually harsh weather conditions on the phenomenon El Nino and global warming.
August 11, 2002