El Niño Threatens Global Food Security with Severe Weather Shifts – Wetter in Montana

El Niño has begun and is expected to be one of the strongest this century, threatening global agriculture and food security.

U.S. forecasters at NOAA announced the onset of El Niño, forecasting significant shifts in global weather patterns. This cyclical oceanic phenomenon matters because it redistributes warm water and moisture across the tropical Pacific, driving extreme weather that can disrupt food production worldwide.

El Niño typically starts in summer and peaks late in the year, with the current event predicted to bring severe droughts and heavy rainfall across regions including Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The last El Niño, occurring in 2023 and 2024, ranked among the five strongest recorded. Scientists like Weston Anderson and Deepti Singh emphasize that impacts vary widely and are intensified by today’s warmer climate. Historical records from 1877 show famines linked to El Niño caused millions of fatalities, underscoring the potential severity. Meanwhile, fertilizer shortages and price hikes, tied to geopolitical issues this spring, compound risks to agriculture.

El Niño’s climatic peak is expected around December or January, as scientists continue monitoring its interaction with global warming.

Montana’s agricultural and natural resource sectors could face indirect effects from disrupted supply chains or altered weather patterns elsewhere. Montana businesses might consider these global shifts when assessing risk and supply stability in the months ahead.

The ‘super El Niño’ is here. What happens next could upend food systems worldwide.
By Frida Garza, Grist