Pacific Ocean like someone 'burning with fever' thanks to El Niño, experts warn as typhoons batter East Asia

Typhoons have battered parts of East Asia as El Niño drives extreme weather events, with experts likening the Pacific Ocean to someone "burning with fever". Storms made worse by El Niño have battered vast swathes Taiwan, China , Japan and the Philippines, killing dozens and leaving destruction and delays in their path. Taiwan was effectively shut down as Typhoon Champi struck the island nation last month. Typhoon Champi was as powerful as a category five hurricane with winds reaching 193mph, sparking hundreds of flight cancellations in East Asia and cutting power to tens of thousands of homes, but fortunately it did not make landfall in Taiwan.

Experts claim the strength of the storm was turbocharged by El Niño - a climate phenomenon that warms sea water in the Pacific and can, in turn, spark major weather events around the globe. While El Niño weather events happen every few years, the UK Met Office warned this year's was the "strongest in living memory", and can last until either February or March next year. The Pacific Ocean was compared to someone "burning with fever", according to Ana Liza Solis, the head of climatology at the Philippines' national weather bureau.

"It can go into convulsions soon," she said during a press briefing in Manila in September. Forecasters believe the worst could yet come as sea surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific rocketed 4C above normal conditions - the highest since records began in 1949. A previous record of 3.6C was observed all the way back in December 1997. China's own climate agency said the sea surface temperature could continue to rise over the winter months due to El Niño. This has led to concern among experts in the region as typhoon season typically peaks in September and October.

Many countries are now bracing for impact with Japanese officials urging citizens to stockpile food, water and other essentials ahead of typhoon season. Beijing has also asked its citizens to identify vulnerable areas and upgraded its monitoring and alarm systems. "How severely a community experiences an El Niño is decided years in advance, by where roads and settlements are built, how water is managed, who is covered by social protection and whether public budgets have room to absorb a shock," said the United Nations Development Programme in Asia and the Pacific.

"Every El Niño tests the resilience we have built; this one should also drive us to build more."