Households across the UK have been urged to stock up on supplies and be "resilient" ahead of an extreme El Nino weather event forecast to bring wetter and stormier conditions this autumn and winter.
Environment Secretary Angela Eagle has called on people to store food and other essentials in case of national weather emergencies, warning that the coming months could bring more extreme storms to the country.
Unprecedented El Nino forecast
An unprecedented El Nino event – when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise 0.5C above the long-term average – is forecast to reach more than 3C in the coming months, making this year's event "the largest since the 19th century", according to the Met Office.
This increases the risk of drought in the tropics, but for north-western Europe – including the UK – it means wetter and stormier weather is on the cards. Due to higher chances of storms this autumn and winter, households have been urged to prepare for national weather emergencies.
Official warning
The Environmental Secretary told The Guardian: "We're about to experience probably the largest El Nino that has ever been seen, and that will lead to drier summers, wetter winters, with more extreme storms in this country.
"It will do a lot more damage in Asia with flooding, and therefore I think that we need to take it seriously.
"If you've got a store of a bit of food that can keep you going for a while before the emergency services can get to you, you're going to be a lot better off than if you haven't.
"So some of it is that kind of preparation for just being a bit more resilient."
Scientific outlook
Professor Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical hazards at University College London, last month said the Met Office and other scientific forecasts "suggest that the world is in for one hell of a ride".
He said: "The astonishing and unprecedented amount of heat building across the eastern Pacific Ocean is all but certain to make this the most powerful El Nino in living memory – possibly even the biggest in several centuries."
