Extreme heat due to El Niño could kill nearly half a million people in six months

Extreme heat caused by the El Niño phenomenon could kill nearly half a million people across the planet over the next six months. The scale of the impact of the natural phenomenon was assessed at the Climate Impact Laboratory at the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley. Scientists' forecasts are published by the Guardian.

About 451 thousand people could become victims of the Southern Oscillation in the next six months. Residents of Sudan, India, Nigeria, Indonesia and Brazil will suffer the most, according to climatologists. In the United States, El Niño could lead to 3,500 deaths.

El Niño is a cyclical weather phenomenon characterized by rising surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. This is contributing to a sharp rise in global temperatures and an increase in extreme weather conditions around the world, from floods to droughts.