The much-hyped ocean-atmosphere oscillation was declared dead by the National Weather Service today. The pool of unusually warm water in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, the telltale indicator of El Niño, has cooled to nearly normal. “We’re sticking a fork in this El Niño and calling it done,” writes NOAA climate analyst Emily Becker on its El Niño blog. But this year’s El Niño, among the strongest on record, will long be remembered for profoundly altering weather extremes in parts of the world while pushing the planet’s temperature to shocking record highs, with devastating consequences.