'Largest El Niño ever seen' warning as Government urges Brits to stockpile food

Well, after having our hottest summer on record, it seems we could be in store for more intense weather.

That’s as the United Nations (UN) has issued a warning to Brits to be prepared for a wild winter.

It’s been said that the El Niño climate phenomenon is being ‘supersized before our eyes’, causing dramatic changes in weather patterns around the world.

For the tropics, southern Africa and north-east Australia can be at heightened risk of drought. While north-western Europe (including the UK) is likely to experience wetter and stormier conditions this coming autumn and early winter, according to the Met Office.

And the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Angela Eagle, has said Brits would be better off making sure they’ve got a stock of key items in case things really do go mad.

We're in for a wetter, stormier few months. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

She told The Guardian: “We’re about to experience probably the largest El Niño that has ever been seen, and that will lead to drier summers, wetter winters, with more extreme storms in this country.”

The Environment Secretary said the unprecedented El Niño event will do ‘a lot more damage in Asia with flooding’ and so she reckons we need to be taking 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,” Eagle continued.

“So some of it is that kind of preparation for just being a bit more resilient.”

Last month, professor emeritus of geophysical hazards, Bill McGuire, told the Press Association that the Met Office and other scientific forecast point to the world being in ‘for one hell of a ride’.

It's time to gear up for bad, bad weather. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

“The astonishing and unprecedented amount of heat building across the eastern Pacific Ocean is all but certain to make this the most powerful El Niño in living memory – possibly even the biggest in several centuries,” he said.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO)’s data shows that the natural weather phenomenon showing could be the strongest for more than seven decades and last until at least February next year.

"El Niño is being supersized before our eyes. The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up," UN head António Guterres said.

“The world is in the danger zone of extreme weather. The race now is between rising risks and our commitment to take climate action and protect people. We must win that race.”