El Niño and Health in the Americas: Strengthening Preparedness and Anticipatory Action

Organization

This technical webinar is co-organized by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The event conducts a singular, comprehensive, two-hour session designed to drive immediate, evidence-based anticipatory action across the region.

Background and rationale

The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) remains a dominant driver of year-to-year climate variability, profoundly altering rainfall and temperature patterns across the Americas. These shifts intensify climate-sensitive hazards, including extreme heatwaves, prolonged droughts, intense rainfall, flooding, and wildfires. Critically, these environmental changes alter the geographic distribution and burden of vector-, water-, and food-borne diseases. The WMO El Niño/La Niña Update of June 2026 confirms that El Niño conditions are developing in the tropical Pacific, with an 80% probability during June–August 2026 and probabilities near or above 90% sustained through November.

That outlook must be translated into localized public health measures before climate-sensitive hazards escalate into health emergencies. WMO’s capacity in climate monitoring and forecasting complements PAHO’s mandate to strengthen health emergency preparedness, readiness, response, and recovery; together they convert a seasonal forecast into operational readiness at the country level — the pre-positioning of plans, supplies, surveillance triggers, and trained personnel ahead of impact.

Building on past joint initiatives, this consolidated webinar links meteorological intelligence to health-sector decision-making, so that ministries of health, national meteorological and hydrological services, and disaster management authorities act on the forecast rather than on the impact.

Objectives

The webinar has 4 main goals:

Provide Synchronized Updates: Deliver current regional climate outlooks alongside evolving public health risk assessments.
Strengthen Disease Surveillance & Heat Stress: Enhance regional understanding of biological hazards, focusing heavily on arboviral risks accelerated by climate anomalies.
Promote Multi-Sectoral Readiness: Equitize actionable, evidence-based public health interventions across climate, health, and disaster management networks.
Foster Regional Collaboration: Drive closer coordination between National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), Ministries of Health, and regional disaster management bodies.

Participation

DATE: Monday, 20 July 2026
LANGUAGES: English, Spanish
TIME: 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM (ET, Washington, Ottawa, Chile, Bolivia)
OTHER TIME ZONES: Buenos Aires, Brasilia (12:00 PM), Mexico City (9:00 AM), Bogota, Kingston, Lima, Panama City (10:00 AM).
PLATFORM: ZOOM (with registration)