A chaotic climate phenomenon is intensifying heavy rains and floods in the Southwest, experts say.

A natural warming cycle called El Niño is sizzling Pacific Ocean waters, leaking moisture into the air that can fuel passing storms. Such El Niño events can happen irregularly every couple of years, but scientists say the latest iteration is particularly extreme — and it's just getting started, with impacts expected for several more months.

Heavy rains fell Tuesday in eastern India after the second cyclone to hit the area in a week prompted evacuations of thousands of people.

Cyclone Murasu made landfall in the morning near Ongole in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh state with maximum sustained winds of 100-110 kph (62-68 mph), the India Meteorological Department said. Heavy rain was forecast for several hours as the cyclone weakened.

As a child, Rebeca Quiñonez-Piñón wondered where monarch butterflies stop for a meal and a night's rest on their long migrations across North America. Now she and other scientists are attaching tiny tracking devices to hundreds of butterflies to find those critical stopover locations before they disappear.

Swarms of dazzling orange-and-black monarchs use environmental cues to travel some 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) from as far as southern Canada to spend the winter in forests of oyamel fir trees in central Mexico, a protected biosphere reserve that's also a World Heritage site.

The skies were clearing, but the risk of flooding remained over parts of the U.S. Southwest after powerful downpours sent massive amounts of water surging over the usually dry landscape, forcing hundreds to evacuate and keeping swift-water rescue teams busy.

Officials said cleanup and repair efforts could take weeks. One person died in the floodwaters and police suspect a second death was weather-related.

Heavy rainfall produced flash flooding and mandatory evacuations in a swath of the Southwest on Sunday, including in a Colorado tourist town bracing for its main river to rise to historic levels, as weary residents in the normally arid region deal with another massive drenching.

Officials in Pagosa Springs, a town of more than 2,000 in the Rockies located near ski resorts and known for its hot springs, warned of potentially "catastrophic flooding" as the San Juan River was forecast to crest at more than 20 feet (6.1 meters) late Sunday night.

The U.N. biodiversity summit entered its final hours Friday with talks headed for overtime as nations disagreed over how to rescue a landmark deal to restore nature to health.

China is exporting a record amount of clean energy technology and equipment as the energy crisis from the Iran war drives surging demand for renewables, and that will help reduce global emissions, according to a report released Thursday.

Once installed or deployed, these 2026 exports will likely avert emissions of about 450 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, roughly equal to Brazil's annual emissions, says the analysis by the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

King tides have inundated parts of both U.S. coasts, flooding streets and sending seawater into homes and businesses in beach communities in California, Florida and the Carolinas.

The tides began with the full moon earlier this week and could cause flooding in some areas into the weekend, forecasters said. King tides are caused by the gravitational pull and alignments of the Earth, moon, and sun. They can occur several times a year and last several days.

Cyclone Arnab dumped heavy rain across India 's eastern Andhra Pradesh state and caused extensive damage in some areas Wednesday after tens of thousands of people were evacuated from vulnerable coastal areas.

Prakhar Jain, head of the state's disaster management authority, said the cyclone had weakened slightly before landfall earlier in the day but brought heavy to very heavy rainfall to several coastal districts, triggering widespread disruption in affected areas. No casualties were reported and damage was being assessed.

An oil slick in the Gulf has reached a beach in the United Arab Emirates, AFP video showed on Tuesday, with experts warning it could threaten desalination plants as it spreads.