El Niño Fears Surge Among CEOs As Economy In Crosshairs Of Extreme Weather

As we have highlighted, the global economic impact of El Niño could be in the trillions of dollars over the next several years. American business leaders are bracing for weather disruptions as their discussion on recent earnings calls about the damaging weather phenomenon surges to multi-year highs. 

Bloomberg data shows executives speaking about El Niño has surged to the highest levels since 2019. There is growing concern among some corporate America that extreme weather will dent future earnings. 

News stories referencing El Niño have surged to highs not seen since October 2015. 

Christopher Callahan, an Earth system scientist at Dartmouth College, who co-authored the report “Persistent effect of El Niño on global economic growth,” recently warned: 

“There’s an economic legacy of El Niño in GDP [gross domestic product] growth.” 

Last month, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California identified a “potential precursor” of El Niño conditions after one of its satellites spotted a massive wave of warm water moving across the equatorial Pacific.

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich can detect Kelvin waves – low waves that can be hundreds of miles /km wide. When Kelvin waves form at the equator, they can bring warm water – and higher sea levels – from west to east across the Pacific, all characterizations of an El Niño. pic.twitter.com/0TrjhyWmxK

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) May 12, 2023

As of May 11, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said the probability of El Niño forming is greater than 90% over the next few months. 

Recall we wrote, “El Nino Watch Initiated As Ag-Industry In Crosshairs.” 

And maybe CEOs have found the next scapegoat to blame when earnings take a dive…