Aid agencies have warned against increasing threats of hunger, disease, and war in 2016 with the strongest El Niño weather cycle on record.
The natural weather event, which helped seal 2015's position as the world's warmest year, is set to worsen droughts in certain areas and flooding in others.
Africa will be hard hit with about 31 million hounded by food shortage, and one-third situated in Ethiopia where 10.2 million are estimated to require humanitarian help.
While food insecurity in Africa is expected to be at its peak in February, regions that include Central and South America and the Caribbean will experience El Niño in the coming six months.
University of Reading Dr. Nick Klingaman said, depending on measurements, this will be the strongest El Niño on record books.
"In a lot of tropical countries we are seeing big reductions in rainfall of the order of 20-30 percent," he said, citing Indonesia's bad case of drought, Indian monsoon being 15 percent below normal, and forecasted reduced monsoons for Brazil and Australia.
The current El Niño is the most forceful since 1998, anticipated to be one of the three most powerful ever. The World Meteorological Organization said that the peak three-month average surface temperatures of water in tropical Pacific regions, for instance, are projected to exceed 2 degrees Celsius (35 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal.
No Signs Of Waning
NASA warned that this current brewing in the Pacific has no signs of letting up, as viewed from the latest satellite image from the Jason-2 mission.
The latest image maintains a "striking resemblance" to one from December in 1997 by Jason-2's predecessor during the last massive El Niño event - both reflecting the classic pattern of a completely developed El Niño.
"The images show nearly identical, unusually high sea surface heights along the equator in the central and eastern Pacific: the signature of a big and powerful El Niño," said NASA, pointing out the higher-than-usual sea surface heights that indicate a thick warm water layer.
In this naturally occurring phenomenon happening every two to seven years, warm waters of the central Pacific expand eastwards heading to North and South America. It typically peaks late in the calendar year, although the impacts can be felt until the spring and up to 12 full months.
In the United States, many of the largest El Niño impacts are expected in early next year, with several relatively cool and wet months across the southern U.S. and relatively warm, dry conditions over the northern part.
Drought-stricken California and the West can experience some relief, but watch out: in 1982-83 and 1997-98 El Niño events, there were around twice the average rainfall amount in Southern Cali, with ensuing floods, mudslides, high winds, high surf, and lightning strikes.
El Niño events are usually followed by La Niña, which can bring opposite but similarly risky effects. As in the 1998 El Niño, the heat transfer tends to be trailed by an ocean cooling, a La Niña onset.
Dr. Klingaman said it is possible that at this time in 2016, the world could be seeing the opposite of many El Niño impacts. "In places where we are seeing droughts from El Nino, we could be seeing flooding from La Nina next year," he explained, dubbing it as disruptive either way.
Grim Forecast, Humanitarian Mission
The United Nations stressed that it is crucial to ensure security for El Niño-affected populations.
"Only by protecting and stabilizing vulnerable countries can we ensure people are not forced to leave their homes in search of food or a new livelihood," the agency said, pinpointing the 60 million people already forced to leave their homes due to conflict.
To aid agencies like Oxfam, the worry is the continuing El Niño exacerbating existing stresses such as the wars in Syria, Yemen, and South Sudan. Existing food shortages, too, are expected to worsen in Southern Africa, with Malawi estimated to have nearly 3 million requiring humanitarian aid before March.
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua are also already bearing the brunt of drought and rain shortages, while further flooding is expected to strike in Central America in January.
"Millions of people in places like Ethiopia, Haiti and Papua New Guinea are already feeling the effects of drought and crop failure," said Oxfam's Jane Cocking.
She said other mass-scale emergencies should not be allowed to develop in other places, as the world cannot cope while it responds to emerging portents in Latin America and Southern Africa.
Food prices in developed nations, too, will bear the consequences, with staple food prices rising by up to 10 percent and crops such as rice, coffee, sugar, and cocoa specifically getting affected.
