Wild weather is a way of life for people living along the coast in the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Japan. But the last few months have been extraordinary. A wave of intense and, at times, unpredictable storms exacerbated by the El Niño weather pattern has killed dozens, shuttered major airports and wiped out crops and infrastructure across a swathe of East Asia.
In October, nearly all of Taiwan shut down as a monster storm big enough to engulf the island of 23 million roared towards its north-eastern coast. Equivalent to a category five hurricane, Typhoon Champi's 295km/h (193mph) winds had the power to flatten homes and whip up destructive waves. Thankfully it did not make landfall in Taiwan, skirting past the island while dousing it in rain.
But it had far-reaching impacts: hundreds of flights were cancelled in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. In the Philippines' Batanes archipelago, seaside highways shut as huge waves crashed onto the shore, and in southern Japan's Okinawa islands, power was cut to 15,000 homes. El Niño is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon in which warm waters pooling in the eastern Pacific and altered wind patterns drive extreme weather events around the world.
It happens around every two to seven years, lasting for around a year. This year's El Niño, which the UK Met Office has forecast to be the "strongest in living memory", is likely to last until February or March. In June, Japan watched two storms - Typhoon Mekkhala and Severe Tropical Storm Higos - race towards its eastern coast simultaneously, forcing one million people to evacuate.
In July, Tropical Storm Narra grazed China's southern coast along Guangxi, submerging villages and displacing tens of thousands. August brought Super Typhoon Dolphin, which churned across the Pacific for 16 days - before slamming into eastern China, triggering heavy floods and dozens of casualties. Later that month Typhoon Saudel made landfall in three south-eastern Chinese cities over one week, shutting transport networks and forcing thousands to evacuate.
The Pacific Ocean, heated to record levels by El Niño, is now brimming with typhoon energy, according to the Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) metric which measures the total intensity of a season's storms. This year, the ACE reading for South East and East Asia is forecast to be nearly double the 30-year average. El Niño also affects wind patterns and in this case, that means typhoons are tending to form further east than usual.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
