'Godzilla' El Niño: What should Londoners do to prepare?

Londoners have been urged to prepare for extreme weather conditions as the strongest El Niño event in 1,000 years develops over the Pacific Ocean .

Forecasters around the world are warning of wildfires and floods, while the UK is set for a particularly wet and stormy winter.

The UK government has urged citizens to stock up on supplies, and to ensure they have enough food and water on hand to survive a few days without power or water.

Professor Richard Wilding, an expert in supply chain strategy, told the BBC: "Things that were in supermarkets and seen as relatively abundant may all of a sudden be in shortage.”

Recent data shows the Pacific is around 2.6C above the 30-year average aapsky - stock.adobe.com ‘Prioritise certain food groups’ Senior nutrition scientist Dr Sammie Gill, from the British Nutrition Foundation, advises prioritising certain food groups, including complex carbohydrates such as oats, rice and pasta, and proteins such as lentils and unsalted nuts, as well as canned oily fish such as tuna, mackerel and sardines.

Tinned fruit, pickled foods such as vegetables and eggs, and long-life milk are also recommended.

Experts advise looking out for salt and sugar content when buying tinned items and to avoid items tinned in brine or syrups, or foods with high salt content, added sugars and limited nutrients.

People should ensure they have between two and three litres of drinking water per person per day, as well as an additional six to seven litres per person per day for basic hygiene and cooking.

Earlier this month, Angela Eagle 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.

“It will do a lot more damage in Asia with flooding, and therefore I think that we need to take 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. So some of it is that kind of preparation for just being a bit more resilient.”

El Niño is a natural climate cycle which leads to rising ocean temperatures, with recent data showing the Pacific is around 2.6C above the 30-year average.

It is forecast to peak at around 4C above average by November, according to the average of 14 different models, which would turn the scale of the phenomenon into a “Godzilla-level” event according to climate scientists.

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