As of June 2026, El Niño has officially arrived. This naturally recurring phenomenon is characterized by warmer-than-normal water temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific along with changes to atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. Its regional effects range from desert floods to delayed monsoons to shifts in where tropical cyclones are more likely to form. NOAA’s
sargassoa type of floating brown algae, has changed its range in recent decades, declining in the North Atlantic Sargasso Sea while proliferating in the tropical Atlantic. That trend, which has been underway since 2011, continued in 2026 when the algae, commonly known as a type of seaweed, reached its annual peak in June in a
