El Niño: food shortages, floods, disease and droughts set to put millions at risk
by John Vidal and Damian Carrington from Environment | The Guardian on (#TR1X)
Agencies warn of unchartered territory as strongest-ever El Nino threatens to batter vulnerable countries with extreme weather for months
The UN has warned of months of extreme weather in many of the world's most vulnerable countries with intense storms, droughts and floods triggered by one of the strongest El Nino weather events recorded in 50 years, which is expected to continue until spring 2016.
El Nino is a natural climatic phenomenon that sees equatorial waters in the eastern Pacific ocean warm every few years. This disrupts regular weather patterns such as monsoons and trade winds, and increases the risk of food shortages, floods, disease and forest fires.
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