Southeast Asia endures punishing year of extreme weather amid super El Niño

Amna Nawaz:

Southeast Asia is enduring a punishing year of extreme weather, and experts warn the ongoing storm season could be one of the most intense in years, with even more powerful systems possible in the months ahead.

Special correspondent Patrick Fok reports from Singapore on how the El Nino climate pattern could fuel more extreme conditions in the coming months.

Patrick Fok:

A sudden gush of water floods the chamber. These young ones dressed in protective gear are hanging on. In this simulated experience at the Lvxing Disaster Training Center in Eastern China, they keep smiles on their faces, but the danger they're preparing for is real.

Liu Zihao, Manager, Lvxing Disaster Simulation Training Center (through interpreter):

When a disaster strikes, many people, because they have no prior experience, lack proper understanding of such events. They lose their lives in the very first moment simply because of fear, which causes them to lose control of their bodies.

Patrick Fok:

The center trains how to navigate typhoon-force winds, flash flooding, and even rescues. It opened just over a year ago to help prepare China's citizens for increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather.

The country has faced a barrage of monster storms. Late last month, a rare atmospheric pattern saw four tropical cyclones spinning simultaneously across the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea, adding to weeks of extreme conditions across the region. One of the most powerful storms hit in early August.

Typhoon Dolphin tore through Southern Japan and the Philippines before slamming into China's east coast with torrential rain. More than a million people were evacuated from at-risk areas. Dolphin was unusual for more than its strength. It lasted 16 days, hurtling nearly 4,000 miles across the Asia-Pacific.

Forecasters say typhoon activity this season could run 60 percent above the historical average. But there are growing concerns about what lies ahead, with weather experts warning a developing El Nino could bring even more extreme conditions.

This natural shift in Pacific Ocean temperatures disrupts weather patterns. But some scientists are asking how a changing climate could alter its impact.

Theodore Keeping, Climate Scientist, Imperial College:

What we do know is that, if an El Nino event occurs, climate change means the weather patterns that we'd normally have seen in an El Nino have become more extreme in many cases for hot extremes, for extreme rainfalls, for droughts than they would have been historically.

Patrick Fok:

The effects have been stark across Asia. In Hong Kong, Dolphin coincided with a record-breaking heat wave with temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Its circulation suppressed rainfall, drawing hot, dry air over the city; 67-year-old Ng Sui Ying had to work through it. She endures long hours cleaning at this housing estate.

Ng Sui Ying, Cleaner (through interpreter):

It's very hot. What can you do? This is the job. For some people, it's even more grueling. This is what it's like when you're poor.

Patrick Fok:

Hong Kong has a three-tier heat stress at work warning system to alert employers when conditions become dangerous. But the guidelines are not legally binding.

Ivan Lin, Society For Community Organization (through interpreter):

They are only recommendations and carry no legal force. We hope they can go a step further and be written into law, giving frontline workers guaranteed protection.

Patrick Fok:

In the Western Philippine island of Palawan, the threat is to people's livelihoods. Farmers like Reneeboy Pocmabuan are readying rice seedlings before the typhoon season worsens. When severe storms hit, the fields are flooded. If crops remain submerged for several days, they run out of oxygen, rot, and die.

Reneeboy Pocmabuan, Rice Farmer (through interpreter):

Of course, we are scared we won't have enough rice to feed ourselves. So it's important we harvest before the storms come.

Patrick Fok:

And the worries many face here extend beyond the fields. The conflict in the Middle East has already pushed up fuel and transport costs. A major hit to the harvest could add further pressure on food prices and the wider economy.

According to the Philippine government, a string of severe storms last year capped 2025 economic growth at 4.4 percent, marking the country's weakest performance since the COVID pandemic. It's a pattern seen right across the region, and extreme weather already this year has cost Asian economies tens of billions of dollars.

For farmers like Reneeboy, the storm season is a calculation, what to plant, when to harvest, and how much to risk. And across Asia, millions of people are facing similar uncertainty, as the next storm looms.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Patrick Fok reporting from Singapore.