Minister urges Brits to stockpile these El Nino necessities now – ‘take it critically’
An unprecedented and worrying El Nino event is forecast to reach more than 3C in the coming months, making this year’s event “the largest since the 19th century”
Bog rolls are on Dame Angela Eagle’s suggested shopping list(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Environment Secretary Angela Eagle has urged people to store supplies in case of extreme weather this winter in a chilling callback to the Covid bog roll banditry.
An unprecedented El Nino event – when sea temperatures in tropical eastern Pacific rise 0.5C above the long-term average – is forecast to reach more than 3C in the coming months, making this year’s event “the largest since the 19th century”, according to the Met Office.
El Nino creates a heightened risk of drought in the tropics, southern Africa and north-east Australia, while north-western Europe – including the UK – is likely to experience wetter and stormier conditions in the coming autumn and early winter, the forecaster said.
Angela Eagle said Brits need to be better prepared for potential climate-related emergencies(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
And the Environment Secretary said people in the UK should prepare for the increased risk of national weather emergencies by stocking up on essentials such as food and loo roll.
She said: “We’re about to experience probably the largest El Nino 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.
Experts predict El Nino’s dramatic impact on UK weather this winter(Image: World Meteorological Organization (WMO))
“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.”
Professor Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical hazards, University College London, last month said the Met Office and other scientific forecasts “suggest that the world is in for one hell of a ride”.
“The astonishing and unprecedented amount of heat building across the eastern Pacific Ocean is all but certain to make this the most powerful El Nino in living memory – possibly even the biggest in several centuries,” he said.
It comes after Britain saw a run on toilet rolls across the country as panicking folk bulk bought up essentials ahead of lockdown during the 2020 Covid pandemic.
