2026 El Niño could be the most intense ever recorded, according to scientists

Olhar Digital News presented its highlights for Monday, August 3rd.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a UN agency, issued an alert regarding the El Niño phenomenon. According to the WMO, this phenomenon is expected to continue intensifying, reaching its peak activity between August and October 2026. Due to an unusual oceanic warming scenario, with water temperatures up to 2.9°C above average, there is an increased risk of droughts, floods, and wildfires in various regions of the planet.

In another event, WhatsApp users in different countries reported the sudden blocking of their accounts. The reason provided by the platform is a review of the terms of service, a process that can take up to 24 hours to complete. Reports on social media suggest that the affected profiles had not committed any violations of the application's rules.

In the aviation sector, Eve Air Mobility, a subsidiary of Embraer, reached a significant milestone in the development of its eVTOL. The first transition flight of the prototype was conducted, testing the change from vertical to horizontal movement by activating the rear propeller, a phase considered one of the most challenging to confirm the aerial vehicle's concept.

Chinese Artificial Intelligence: A More Economical Option?

Chinese companies have intensified global competition in the field of artificial intelligence by introducing cost-reduction focused launches, which pressures American competitors. In this context, Alibaba released the Qwen3.8-Max model, while DeepSeek drew attention with V4-Flash, which operates for only three cents per million tokens.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has issued a forecast indicating that El Niño will continue to strengthen and play a key role in shaping the global climate from August to October 2026.

According to specialists, this climatic phenomenon could significantly affect precipitation distribution across various parts of the globe: some areas are expected to face drought risk, while others may experience excess moisture. Furthermore, an increased probability of exceeding standard temperature norms is predicted in different regions of the planet. The WMO press release states that the average sea surface temperature could potentially rise above normal by 2.9 degrees Celsius.

El Niño, which translates from Spanish as 'boy', is one of the most significant natural phenomena on the planet because its consequences can threaten the lives of many people. The essence of the phenomenon lies in the influx of warm water into the Pacific Ocean, but its influence is felt far beyond this area.

During periods of El Niño activity, there is a general increase in average temperature, leading to heatwaves in some regions, which negatively affects agricultural production, especially.

Another part of the material reports the discovery of blue-throated lorikeets by ornithologists. These brightly colored parrots inhabit exclusively the island of Buru, located in eastern Indonesia. Previously, this species was described based on seven specimens collected in the 1920s, and only two confirmed sightings were recorded at the end of 2014.

After more than eleven years, researchers managed to rediscover these rare birds. It turned out that they prefer to live not in the lowlands or mid-altitude forests where searches were previously conducted, but in the remote and little-studied mountainous areas of Buru. Details of this sensational find are available on the Search for Lost Birds project website.