El Niño coverage is starting to get the science right. The human story still needs catching up.
On 3 August 2026, NOAA confirmed El Niño is strengthening, with an 81% chance of reaching very strong intensity between October and December and a 97% chance of persisting into early 2027. Most coverage has carried those figures as issued, a which is a notable improvement from past El Niño events, especially when the 2015 “Godzilla" nickname first appeared. Headlines have already reached for a new version this year, "Super El Niño," a phrase neither the WMO nor NOAA uses. Their official classification runs from weak to very strong, based on measured sea-surface anomalies in a specific patch of the Pacific, and forecasters attach a probability to each category rather than a name. The gap between that classification and the adjective in the headline is where the sensationalism sits.