El Nino breaks Pacific temperature record as weather pattern intensifies

JUST IN: El Nino smashes a Pacific temperature record, with sea surface temperatures in a key monitoring region hitting 29.70C in September, the EU's Copernicus climate service says, as forecasters warn of rising drought and flood risks worldwide.

The Pacific just hit 29.70 degrees Celsius, the hottest ever recorded in El Nino's key monitoring zone.

That's from the EU's Copernicus climate service this morning, and it beats the peaks of the monster El Ninos of 1983, 1998 and 2016. The unsettling part is timing. This event hasn't even peaked yet, that comes later this year. And you can see what's on the front line here, low-lying Pacific islands like Palau, sitting right in the warming zone.

Japan's weather agency has already called it the strongest intensity on record, with temperatures four degrees above normal. Copernicus is more careful, since a warmer ocean overall makes new El Ninos look bigger than old ones. Either way, drought risk up, flood risk up, worldwide.

And the number that should really stop you, September ran 1.63 degrees above pre-industrial levels, and Copernicus says this run above the Paris limit could last into 2027.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.