{"id":577580,"date":"2026-07-31T18:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/577580\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T18:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:17:11","slug":"el-nino-could-cause-ireland-to-have-unseasonably-warm-autumn-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/577580\/","title":{"rendered":"El Ni\u00f1o could cause Ireland to have unseasonably warm autumn \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland could have an unseasonably warm autumn as the El Ni\u00f1o effect <\/a>continues to strengthen, pushing up temperatures in almost every part of the world. <\/p>\n

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Friday that the El Ni\u00f1o <\/a>\u2013 the recurring weather pattern \u2013 \u201ccontinues to intensify steadily and is expected to dominate global climate patterns in the August-October 2026 season. Much of the world faces above-normal temperatures and major changes in rainfall patterns.\u201d <\/p>\n

This latest assessment will cause further concerns as countries across Europe battle devastating fires amid gruelling heatwaves and prolonged drought. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Were this summer\u2019s heatwaves caused by El Ni\u00f1o, or something even more terrifying?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ireland is among those countries that have had scarcely any rain for weeks and where the fire risk in open countryside in many counties is now categorised as \u201cextreme\u201d. <\/p>\n

Heading into autumn, the WMO says southern Europe is expected to be wetter than average and northern Europe drier, with all areas likely to be unusually warm. <\/p>\n

The rainfall outlook for Ireland is less certain because of the country\u2019s northwesterly location<\/a>, but a dry autumn would cause problems for water supplies and agriculture after the drought. <\/p>\n

The WMO update comes as France and Spain continue to fight fires across large areas of countryside that have destroyed villages, farms and forest and have at times threatened cities. <\/p>\n

United Nations secretary general Ant\u00f3nio Guterres responded to the latest WMO update by warning that unmitigated climate change was only going to become more deadly. <\/p>\n

Night Watch: On patrol with volunteer firefighters in Bordeaux Video: Naomi O’Leary. Editor: Eoin Ronayne <\/p>\n

\u201cEl Ni\u00f1o is not just on our doorstep \u2013 it is inside the house and turning up the heat,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this is only a warm-up act. El Ni\u00f1o is strengthening … Fossil fuels are fanning the flames of this crisis. Expansion must stop. More coal, oil and gas will lead to a more combustible future. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnless we act … the dangers will become deadlier still. The warm-up act is over. We cannot afford to wait for the main event.\u201d <\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o <\/a>is a naturally occurring phenomenon that takes hold every two to seven years, driven by the dispersal of warm air from a build-up of heat in the waters of the eastern Pacific. <\/p>\n

It increases global temperatures <\/a>for about a year and exacerbates heat already intensifying because of global warming. <\/p>\n

In France, some easing of the intense heatwave conditions has helped emergency services bring under control fires that caused havoc in the southwest region, but southeast and Mediterranean areas are now under high alert. <\/p>\n

In Spain, temperatures exceeding 40 degrees are expected to continue in inland areas until Saturday, with the heat easing across the country from Sunday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland could have an unseasonably warm autumn as the El Ni\u00f1o effect continues to strengthen, pushing up temperatures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-577580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}