Researchers with the World Weather Attribution project warned that the 2023‑24 El Niño will amplify already extreme climate risks, contributing to heatwaves, floods and fires across multiple continents. Their analysis shows human‑driven warming contributes far more to the probability and severity of these events than the oceanic cycle alone. In the Horn of Africa, anthropogenic heat “far eclipsed” El Niño’s impact on record rains, and intensify droughts.

Jemilah Mahmood of Indonesia’s Sunway Centre for Planetary Health stressed that the combined effect translates into lives lost. She cited an estimated 546,000 heat‑related deaths worldwide each year, arguing that societies treat the silent heat crisis as invisible until mortality spikes. The inequity‑laden burden falls hardest on those who contributed least to emissions, and strain healthcare systems globally.

Fire specialists warn of a “whiplash” cycle in wildfire‑prone regions such as the Amazon, western Canada, the U.S. West and Australia, where heavy rains spur vegetation growth that quickly desiccates under soaring temperatures. Theodore Keeping of the University of Reading predicts some of the most destructive fire seasons on record, forcing crews to prepare for unprecedented blaze intensity, and threatening critical infrastructure.