This year’s record-breaking El Niño could give the planet an unsettling glimpse of what normal temperatures may feel like a decade from now. The powerful Pacific warming pattern is expected to amplify heat, drought and extreme rainfall worldwide, while combining with human-driven climate change to temporarily push global temperatures toward levels otherwise expected in the late 2030s. Scientists say 2027 could become the hottest year ever recorded, effectively turning El Niño into a kind of climate time machine. The future, it seems, may be arriving a little earlier than planned.