Flooding across much of south-east Asia fuelled by a rare cluster of three tropical storms has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people in five countries, with Indonesia and Sri Lanka the worst hit so far.
Meteorologists say the region’s most recent extreme weather appears to be driven by the interactions between Cyclone Senyar over the Malacca Strait and Typhoon Koto over the South China Sea. Cyclone Ditwah also formed over the Bay of Bengal towards the end of the week.
Exacerbating these weather patterns, meteorologists said, was the coincidence of two naturally occurring phenomena — La Ni?a in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean Dipole.