Typhoons batter East Asia as El Niño makes Pacific 'burn with fever'

Even for countries where typhoons are a way of life, the last few months have brought unusually wild weather. Fishermen return to sea under a crimson sky in August after China's Jiangsu province is hit by Super Typhoon Dolphin 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