Study links global warming to intensified El Niño storms in Galápagos.

Researchers have found that global warming has made El Niño storms in the eastern tropical Pacific more extreme over the past 40 years than any natural variation seen in the last thousand years, based on coral records from the Galápagos Islands. The study, published in *Science*, shows that the temperature swings during recent El Niño events are sharper and hotter than those recorded in the 12th and 13th centuries.

El Niño storms change rainfall patterns worldwide, bringing floods to some regions and droughts to others. Scientists use coral growth rings to track past ocean temperatures. The new study examined modern corals and fossil corals that grew from 1980 to 2023 and earlier. The data reveal temperature swings up to 1.5 °C