Currently in NYC — June 27, 2023: Mostly cloudy with another chance of showers and thunderstorm

The weather, currently.

I know I sound like a broken record but we have another chance for showers and thunderstorms on Tuesday. It’s getting a little tiring, isn’t it? The instability doesn't come to an end any time soon so expect much more of the same this week. We’ll have mostly cloudy skies again tomorrow with showers and storms possible at any time, but especially the evening. You may not see anything at all but be prepared in case you do. Our high hits 78°F. The mugginess continues so I hope your subway comes fast. Enjoy your day!

Bike Forecast:

4 out of 10

— Stacy Blundell

What you can do, currently.

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What you need to know, currently.

El Niño, the periodic warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean, is back — and it’s getting worse fast.

New data out Monday shows that El Niño has now officially moved into “moderate” territory — with tropical Pacific water temperatures already up to 1.0°C higher than normal. That’s expected to keep growing quickly over the next few months, with a worst-case estimate from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology showing a peak warming of 3.2°C by November — which would be the strongest El Niño ever measured, by far. Even an average of global predictions now show a peak warming of 2.2°C — meaning that only the El Niños that began in 1982, 1997, and 2015 would be stronger.

The implications of an El Niño this strong are difficult to underestimate. In 2015-16, more than 60 million people worldwide experienced hunger due to drought made worse by the El Niño. The Great Barrier Reef in Australia suffered its worst coral bleaching event in history, with about 30% of the reef losing most of its corals. Pacific Islanders faced a string of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded.

Initial research shows that this year’s El Niño could cost the struggling global economy nearly $3 trillion.

—Eric Holthaus