Actualmente tenemos dos anomalías que llaman la atención a nivel mundial en la temperatura superficial del mar. Una es el incipiente evento de ElNiño , el cual se prevé que sea fuerte a muy fuerte, en el que el Pacífico tropical se calienta bastante por encima de su media. Las consecuencias son mundiales, especialmente en el continente americano y asiático. Sequías , inundaciones, cambios en el patrón habitual de lluvias.
La otra anomalía es la burbuja fría del Atlántico Norte o Cold Blob, el cuál se relaciona últimamente según estudios a una ralentización de la Amoc (corriente termohalina) lo peculiar es que lleva unas semanas ocupando una gran extensión. Cuando la amoc se ralentiza (que no colapsar) deja de llegar calor húmedo a Europa occidental, los inviernos son bastante más duros, se crea un área de altas presiones en el Atlántico Norte , sube el nivel del mar en la costa este de América del Norte, disminuyen las lluvias en el norte de Europa, entre otras consecuencias.
Hay múltiples estudios que hablan de un posible colapso de Amoc en unas decenas de años.
¿Estamos viendo el inicio?
The last time an El Niño this strong hit, it killed 50 million people. That was 3 to 4% of the entire world population. Scale that to today and you're looking at 250 million equivalent.
The 1877 Super El Niño triggered simultaneous droughts across India, China, Brazil, and East Africa. Crops failed on four continents at the same time. The famine lasted three years. Researchers have called it "arguably the worst environmental disaster to ever befall humanity."
NOAA's latest update gives a two-in-three chance this one reaches strong or very strong by fall. European models are even more aggressive. Sea surface temperatures need to exceed 2°C above normal to qualify as "super." The trajectory is pointing directly at that threshold.
Here's what makes 2026 structurally different from every previous Super El Niño: there are two independent supply shocks converging on the same crop cycle.
The Iran war has shut down roughly a third of the world's seaborne fertilizer trade through the Strait of Hormuz. US fertilizer supply was at 75% of normal in mid-March, right when the Corn Belt needed it most. Fertilizer prices hit their highest level since 2022. That input shortage is already baked into the 2026 growing season.
The El Niño yield shock operates on a 6 to 12 month lag. India is forecasting below-normal monsoons for the first time in three years. Indonesia and Malaysia carry 90% of global palm oil, and El Niño production declines in those countries take 6 to 24 months to peak. Every strong El Niño in the past 55 years has reduced global cocoa production.
So the fertilizer shortage weakens the crops El Niño is about to stress, and the El Niño yield collapse hits in 2027 on fields that were already under-fertilized in 2026. Two shocks with nearly identical lag structures, converging on the same harvest window.
The difference between 1877 and 2026: we can see this one coming six months out. The commodity futures curve is barely pricing either shock. Whether that's rational discounting or willful denial depends entirely on what the Pacific Ocean does between now and October.
This year’s El Niño is developing faster than in 1997 and 1982, based on late-April sea surface temperatures.
The central equatorial Pacific is near 0.8˚C warmer than average, similar to 2015.
But unlike past years, subsurface Pacific waters are now locally 7-8˚C above-average.