El Niño viewed from Peru - where it originated

Peruvians should be better prepared for a phenomenon which they know well, since it all started on their coasts, says local historian Lizardo Seiner in an interview with El Comercio

Ever since the Spanish landed in Peru in the fifteenth century the magnitude of each El Nino event has increased, according to Lizardo Seiner Lizarraga. The northern coasts are especially in danger, said the history lecturer at the university of Lima, and specialist in the social and environmental history of risk.

Lizarraga's scientific research begins in 1925, one of the three worst years hit by the weather pattern. 1983 is classed as the worst, but the phenomenon goes back way back. As he said in the following historical extract from one of his articles, "The El Nino phenomenon in Peru: reflections in history":