Currently in the Twin Cities — June 27, 2023: Warmer, partly cloudy Tuesday

The weather, currently.

Temperatures will be warming back up, above normal Tuesday after two somewhat cooler and cloudier days. Look for partly cloudy skies and highs in the mid 80s. As an area of high pressure drifts east, somewhat more muggy air will return with south winds Wednesday and a disturbance aloft will help to produce some isolated showers or thunderstorms. Another disturbance and weak cool front will touch off more potential spotty thunderstorms Thursday. Weekend weather looks mainly dry and warm with sunshine. Enjoy the break from heat, 90°F+ temperatures could make a return early next week in time for July.

— Sven Sundgaard

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