Seabirds, silting and salt: Photos show some of the early effects of El Niño

El Niño — the natural climatic chaos agent that pops up periodically and spikes global temperatures — won't peak for several months and should last through next spring, experts say.

But there are noticeable effects right now, both in terms of weather and human preparation.

Here's a photographic look at some of the ways El Niño is already making its mark.

A ship transits the Panama Canal near a hydrometeorological monitoring station on Aug. 27 as a lack of rainfall linked to El Niño affects the water levels in Gamboa, Panama.

Panama Canal Authority hydrologist Ricardo Guete shows the low water level on a gauge at the monitoring station in Gatun Lake. The authority will cap daily transits in early September as it gears up for a longer-than-usual El Niño season.

Blue-footed boobies rest on rocks near the entrance to the Panama Canal on Aug. 5. Seabirds are appearing in unusual numbers near Panama City as El Niño warms the eastern Pacific and disrupts marine food supplies.

Governments across Latin America are mobilizing firefighters, activating contingency plans and preparing water, energy and transportation systems as El Niño strengthens across the Pacific, raising concerns about drought , extreme heat, flooding and other climate-related disruptions in the months ahead.

In Honduras, the Secretariat of Risk Management and National Contingencies declared a red alert in 75 municipalities in the central and southern parts of the country and a yellow alert in another 71 municipalities due to climate conditions affecting crops and livestock. Here, police officers on a motorcycle drive past a cornfield affected by drought on Aug. 26.

Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes, this climate phenomenon develops gradually over months, which gives governments time to prepare before its most severe impacts arrive. In Peru, recently elected President Keiko Fujimori, left, has made preparing for El Niño a top priority.

Across the Pacific, in Indonesia, salt farmers in West Java province are reaping the benefits of an El Niño-driven drought even as crop farmers brace for a prolonged challenge from the baking heat.

Here, a farmer packs sacks of salt on a dyke during harvest at a salt pond in Pengarengan, Indonesia, on July 30. For most of Indonesia, however, the weather pattern is not a positive. Here, villagers collect spring water with bottles at Gunung Batur village in Cilegon, Indonesia, on July 17, after struggling to access groundwater at their homes. Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has warned that the country's dry season will be more intense and prolonged than average — in part due to El Niño .

A strengthening El Niño has already broken records for intensity in its early stages, and it will likely spark even more wild weather worldwide as it grows, “adding fuel to a planet already on fire,” United Nations officials have warned.

While El Niño is not a direct cause of Indonesia's catastrophic wildfire season, it serves as a catalyst, Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency chief told Reuters, with the additional heat and dryness enabling the fires to spread more quickly.