This article discusses the combination of climate change and El Niño and how it is contributing to global heat waves. El Niño is a weather pattern that occurs when the ocean in the central and eastern Pacific warms up, altering weather patterns and raising global temperatures. The article explains that El Niño is just beginning this year, so the full effects on heat waves and rainfall patterns are not yet being felt. However, climate experts predict a strong El Niño this year, which could break global temperature records. The article also mentions that even if the world can limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, extreme heat waves are still expected to be more than eight times more common than before. The article concludes by stating that human-caused climate change is the long-term driver of these heat events, with El Niño acting as an exclamation point on the trend.