WEATHER WATCH

The South-east of England has been pleasantly isolated from the onset of autumn, but it cannot last much longer. On a global weather front, El Nino continues to dominate.

Looking at the weather maps over the past week, one gets the feeling that the south-east of England is just sitting there waiting for the autumn rains. The high pressure area that brought us such stable conditions in late September has moved away, but a succession of cold fronts and low pressure areas near our coasts still seem to be fighting over which will come to spoil our pleasure. For the past few days, the wind and rain has begun in the west and south-west, but the south to south-westerly winds have ensured that the band of poor weather has moved north-east across the country giving London a miss. there is now, however, a cold front moving slowly eastwards across the country. It will be raincoats and umbrellas for us all by the end of the week.

In the rest of the world, there is better long-term news on the warming currents of El Nino. A World Bank conference in Washington this week will discuss the problems, and its vice-president, Ismail Serageldin, has already stated that aid agencies are "better prepared than ever before" for the impending crisis. If we cannot predict how bad El Nino will be, then at least we can mitigate its effects.