An August drought in Villanueva, Spain, was one of many extreme weather events in 2023 ANDER GILLENEA/AFP via Getty Images
THE past year was the hottest on record, but 2023 is unlikely to hold that dubious honour for long. 2024 is expected to be even hotter, as the El Niño climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean reaches its full strength on top of warming driven by greenhouse gases. “We’ve never had a big El Niño like this on the background of global warming,” says Adam Scaife at the Met Office, the UK’s national…
