The U.S. weather forecasting agency has declared the advent of El Niño, and NASA says the natural, recurring phenomenon is bringing wetter conditions to the U.S. Southwest and drought to countries in the western Pacific, such as Indonesia and Australia.
El Niño, characterized by warmer-than-normal water temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific, made its return earlier this month. Observations of sea surface height from NASA's Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite indicated that the 2026 event was continuing to strengthen.
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Business News
June 19, 2026 16:46 ET Major central banks continued to dominate the economic news flow this week too, led by the Federal Reserve, as they announced their latest policy decisions. The Federal Reserve policy session was in focus as it was the first to be led by the new chief Kevin Warsh. In Europe, central banks of the U.K. and Switzerland announced their rate decisions. In Asia, the Bank of Japan drew attention for its policy moves, while data out of China threw some light on the state of the economy.