El Niño likely to cause wetter and warmer-than-normal autumn
The UK Met Office forecasts a wetter and warmer-than-normal autumn driven by a strengthening El Niño event. While the rain may help alleviate drought conditions, it also increases the risk of flooding across the country.
Why it matters
Climate-driven weather patterns have significant implications for infrastructure, agriculture, and public safety in the UK.
Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Flooding from Storm Chandra in the hamlet of Weycroft on January 27, 2026 in Axminster, England. A wetter-than-normal season is forecast for the upcoming autumn increasing the risk of flooding.
The UK is set for wetter and warmer-than-normal weather this autumn, driven by a strengthening El Niño, according to the latest forecasts from the Met Office.
The climate phenomenon - forecast to be the strongest in living memory - will be an infulence to a change to stormier conditions later this season.
Potential wetter weather will put areas of the UK gripped by drought on the road to recovery, but it could also bring an increased chance of flooding as a result.
An already warming climate, paired with unusually high sea temperatures around the UK, will also contribute to above-average temperatures.
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