Some of Asia's largest cities are likely to face months of drought while others could be hit by flooding when a “super” El Niño weather event develops later this year, according to research that warns it has no precedent on record.
The analysis, released by WaterAid and carried out by academics at the universities of Bristol and Cardiff, examined 44 years of rainfall in 12 South and South-East Asian cities alongside the strength of past El Niño events, and found that the stronger the El Niño event, the more certain it became that a city's rainfall would swing away from normal.
