La Nina, effectively a drop in sea surface temperatures off the western coast of South America, can cause havoc with weather patterns in many parts of the globe.

"There is a definite indication of La Nina, but the timing is not clear," WMO scientist Rupa Kumar Kolli told journalists

The Geneva-based WMO said in an report that it had started to detect first signs of a shift in February, with a drop in eastern Pacific sea temperatures to below normal, although surface winds were staying the same.

It said the chances of it developing within two to three months were "weak."

Previous La Nina's have been associated with drier weather in the southern United States and western Latin America, and above-average rainfall to Australia and South East Asia.

But there can also be a knock-on much further afield, with an increase to monsoon rainfall in the Indian subcontinent, and cold weather in tropical West Africa, Southeast Africa, Japan and the Korean peninsula.

The shift follows the dissipation of the notorious El Nino, a warming of Pacific sea surface temperatures that was blamed for a lengthy drought in Australia, flooding in the Horn of Africa and Bolivia, and more severe winter monsoons in South Asia for much of the past year.

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