El Nino is threatening much of Southeast Asia with drought, warns an Australian climate expert.
But on the other side of the Pacific, El Nino can bring flooding rains, which may be a bonus for California as it is in the grip of a record drought.
David Jones, of the Bureau of Meteorology's climate information services branch, says El Nino's influence spreads well beyond Australia.
The influence of El Nino is global, Dr Jones said.
"In our own region, we would expect below-average rainfall conditions to affect most of Southeast Asia," he said.
"So, southern parts of Thailand, through Malaysia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia we know often have dry conditions and in some of the more significant El Ninos, have had drought.
"When we head out towards the Americas, the signal begins to reverse, so coastal parts of South America, up through California and into the northwest of the US tends to see above-average rainfall conditions during El Nino.
"Certainly some of those regions are experiencing drought at the moment, so they would be welcoming of those sorts of rains."
A major rainfall event that in late March hit parts of the Atacama Desert in Peru, the world's driest non-polar region, may be associated with El Nino, Dr Jones said.
"As you move away from the Pacific region, there's a whole range of impacts," he said.
"They tend to be a bit more mixed.
"One that we do see frequently is in Brazil - we often see drought conditions in northeast Brazil, affecting parts of Amazonia and so on."
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