The drought in East Africa is reaching catastrophic proportions. Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Kenya are suffering from years without decent rains and the lives of about 23 million people are now threatened. In Ethiopia the drought raises fears of a repeat of the famine 25 years ago, when an estimated one million people died. Droughts periodically plague this region, but the climate has become more erratic in recent times and led to fears of a sustained change in the weather. However, seasonal rains are expected soon and could be particularly strong as El Niño takes hold in the Pacific, which often leads to heavy rains in East Africa. But the rains have come too late and may cause immense damage by setting off flooding.

El Niño is already causing problems in Australia, where a lack of rain has stoked up wildfires this month in Queensland. However, because of El Niño the Atlantic hurricane season has been the quietest in more than a decade, with only two hurricanes.

The Pacific, though, has seen a recent upsurge in storm activity. Hurricane Rick was the second most powerful east Pacific storm on record, although it was far weaker when it hit Mexico on Wednesday. On the other side of the Pacific, the northern Philippines is braced for its third big typhoon in a month, when Typhoon Lupit is expected to strike, with winds gusting more than 195km/h (121mph). The region is still under water from typhoons Ketsana and Parma, which left more than 1,000 people dead and more than a million living in floodwaters. Earlier this month another storm, Typhoon Melor, pummelled Japan before dying out. But its remains were absorbed into another storm that raced across the Pacific and battered California with ferocious winds and rains.