Kelvin Wave
In June 2026, NASA's Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite detected a giant pulse of warm water — an oceanic Kelvin wave — crossing the Pacific from west to east, arriving at the South American coast and triggering NOAA's El Niño declaration on June 11, 2026. Scrub the timeline or let it play to watch the wave and its global consequences unfold.
Niño-3.4 SST anomaly
-0.33 °C
wave position
western pool
ENSO phase
La Niña residual
El Niño · Kelvin Wave · 2026 · cycles every 7 s
June 11, 2026 — NOAA Declares El Niño
NOAA officially declared an El Niño on June 11, 2026, after sea surface temperatures in the Niño-3.4 region of the central equatorial Pacific measured at least +0.5 °C above average for several consecutive months — the first El Niño since 2024.