The phenomenon may also impact Estonia's weather conditions, including in winter, which may end up milder as a result.

While Estonia is a long way from the part of the world most impacted by El Niño, literally "The little boy" — a natural climate pattern which weakens winds and alters global weather — its effects will make themselves known, including through already high food prices, particularly of those items which are cultivated in the tropics or warmer parts of the world.

"Through the atmosphere, its effects reach us indirectly via the Americas. In Europe, we can talk about probabilistic effects. The stronger effects in Europe and here in Estonia will come indirectly through prices, including food prices and the global economy, as well as a warmer winter," Velle Toll, professor of climate physics at the University of Tartu, told Raadio 2.

"World market prices for commodities such as coffee, cocoa, various grains, rice, corn, wheat and sugar will rise, and through this, of course, our food prices will also increase," he said. "These are staple foods that will also start pushing up the prices of other products."

While in certain regions El Niño may also have some beneficial effects on food production, "unfortunately, the losers greatly outnumber the winners," Toll noted.

As well as food production, a significant contraction in regional economies in tropical areas threatened by hunger could be substantial enough to affect the global economy more broadly, Toll said. "This has also been seen with previous El Niños. Even after El Niño has ended and the fluctuation has disappeared, the socioeconomic effects can persist."

"El Niño is the most significant and most extensive natural fluctuation in the climate system and involves warming in the tropical Pacific Ocean, which causes shifts in weather patterns. First of all, it brings heavy rains and flooding to certain areas in the tropics and droughts to others, but its effects are actually felt across the entire world. Circulation in the ocean and atmosphere forms a single system, and El Niño is such a large-scale phenomenon that it affects weather around the world," Toll said.

The current El Niño is already exceptional. "Only one previous El Niño has been stronger at its peak than the El Niño that is currently still amassing strength. It is forecast that the El Niño now intensifying will very clearly surpass the previous peak," Toll pointed out.

While in all likelihood 2027 will see heat records set, the effects of El Niño may already be felt for the remainder of this year, which may also spell warmer conditions. "Since El Niño is so exceptionally strong, the end of this year could already see record warmth," Toll concluded.

The sea surface-warming El Niño is twinned with a cooling phase, "La Niña," which together make up the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which emerges from variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific Ocean and can be hard to predict.

The two phenomena last a year or so each and typically occur every two to seven years, with varying intensity.

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