Since January, wildfires across Indonesia have scorched 895,657 hectares of land, an area nearly six times the size of Greater London. This destruction is more than double the land area burned during the previous year, as the country faces its worst wildfire season since 2015 due to record-breaking heat and drought conditions attributed to El Niño.
These extreme weather events carry significant consequences for human health and infrastructure. In Indonesia, toxic haze from the fires has triggered school closures and sent 175,000 people to hospitals with respiratory illnesses, including more than 40,000 toddlers suffering from conditions ranging from coughs to pneumonia. Meanwhile, in the United States, the upcoming winter season brings a different set of risks, as the weather phenomenon is expected to shift the jet stream, creating an increased potential for stormier conditions, flash floods, and mudslides across the southern regions.
According to the BBC, El Niño has fueled rapid storm intensification in the eastern Pacific, where 22 named storms and 12 hurricanes have already developed, exceeding the typical seasonal average with two months remaining. The phenomenon has produced wind gusts reaching 180 mph. In contrast, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that the phenomenon will influence the U.S. winter from December 2026 to February 2027, bringing warmer-than-average temperatures to the North and wetter conditions to the South, Florida, and the Eastern Seaboard.
Looking ahead, the World Meteorological Agency projects that this El Niño will continue to strengthen and persist until at least 2027. NOAA plans to release the next update to its three-month seasonal outlook on November 19 to help communities monitor changing drought conditions and potential winter weather risks.