Peru has launched a weather forecasting platform for Pope Leo XIV's visit this week, with much of the country under a state of emergency over the threat of intense rainfall linked to El Niño.

The platform, launched by Peru's national weather agency SENAMHI, offers daily forecasts for the cities on the Pope's itinerary, including all those under emergency declarations. It is designed for the millions of faithful expected to follow the six-day visit, which begins on Wednesday, 11 November.

Pope Leo is due to visit Lima, Chiclayo, Cusco and Pucallpa, spanning Peru's coast, Andes and Amazon, before a final Mass in the capital on 16 November. Peru is the final stop on his 12-day tour of South America, which began in Uruguay and continued in Argentina, where about 2.5 million people attended Mass in Buenos Aires on 9 November.

A country on emergency footing

Last week Peru's government declared a 60-day state of emergency in 1,380 districts across 24 departments and the port of Callao, about 72% of the country's districts, over the imminent danger of heavy rain from the 2026-2027 El Niño. The measure, published as Supreme Decree 149-2026-PCM in the official gazette El Peruano on 3 November, is intended to speed up prevention and response work by local and regional authorities.

Peru's state commission that monitors El Niño said in its latest report in late October that it expected warming of “very strong” magnitude through February 2027, with rainfall from November through January above normal across nearly the entire country.

“We are already registering historic climate records, so it is quite likely that there will be new records for accumulated rainfall in the coming days,” Raquel Loayza, a meteorologist with SENAMHI, told Reuters. Temperatures in northern Peru have reached 30 to 31 degrees Celsius in recent days, high for this time of year, according to the agency.

Planning around the weather

The new platform is mobile-friendly and gives daily forecasts for each stop on the Pope's route, so pilgrims can plan travel and outdoor gatherings around the weather. SENAMHI's director, Grinia Ávalos, has urged the faithful to check conditions before setting out for the events, which run from 11 to 16 November.

The visit is a homecoming of sorts for the pontiff. Leo XIV, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, spent decades as a missionary in Peru, served as Bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023 and became a Peruvian citizen in 2015. He is due to meet President Keiko Fujimori on his first day in Lima.

El Niño, a cyclical warming of Pacific waters first named by fishermen from Peru and neighbouring countries, regularly brings heavy rain and flooding to Peru's coast. This year's event is already being felt: heavy rain has flooded parts of Lima and the northern Piura region in recent days, and the emergency declaration covers most of the country.

For the authorities, the Pope's visit is both a logistical test and a moment of national focus at a difficult time. The weather tracker is a small but practical part of the preparations, aimed at keeping the crowds safe as the rains gather.