El Niño threat puts world in "uncharted territory"Listen /
Drought and crop failure in some parts of the world, unseasonal rainfall and flooding in others: these are some of the conditions brought on by the current El Niño phenomenon.
The weather pattern, which is caused by changing interaction between oceanic and atmospheric dynamics, has been felt across the planet, prompting one senior UN official to warn that the world was moving into "uncharted territory."
The UN agencies and donor countries have been meeting in New York in efforts to mitigate its impacts and prevent more serious emergencies from taking hold.
Daniel Dickinson reports.