The deadly floods sweeping through Indonesia since last week mark a sobering moment for a region long accustomed to the monsoon’s moods but rarely prepared for nature’s most erratic turns. With more than five hundred people confirmed dead, another five hundred missing, and entire communities in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra cut off from the world, the scale of the tragedy is staggering. Yet what stands out most is not only the destruction itself, but the disturbing pattern emerging across South and Southeast Asia.

Indonesia’s disaster was triggered by an exceptionally rare cyclone forming over the Malacca Strait ~ a place where tropical storms almost never develop because of its proximity to the equator. That anomaly alone should prompt governments across the region to reassess their assumptions about climate behaviour. When a storm forms where it should........

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