Crops at risk as El Nino worries ripple across Asia
The extreme weather that wreaked havoc last year could get worse if forecasts are correct
It is with some irony that the most feared weather anomaly in Asia and around the Pacific rim was named after the Christ child.
An El Nino is forming in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and the worry for farmers, weather forecasters and government officials is that its ferocity may match the one which struck in 1997-98, which killed thousands, caused billions of dollars in damage and is acknowledged as the worst in recorded history.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said in a report on Tuesday that "El Nino development is possible as early as July" and added that "the likelihood of an event developing remains at least at 70 per cent".
China's National Marine Environmental Forecasting Centre has warned about the formation of an El Nino during the northern hemisphere spring, Xinhua reported.
A strong El Nino could wreck grain and vital cash crops around the region
What makes the prospect of an El Nino this year particularly daunting is the spike in extreme weather that has taken place as the planet has warmed, with a winter polar vortex paralysing the United States and the typhoons without end which roared in from the Pacific last year, demolishing the central Philippines.