Tuesday, February 26, 2008 Expect a wet summer: Pagasa 7
THE country can expect a wet summer this year as there will be rains every month until June because of the La Niña phenomenon.
Oscar Tabada, chief of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geographical and Seismological Administration (Pag-asa), said the on-going La Niña was discovered last October yet, bringing more rains and water beyond its normal volume.
The volume of water from the rains was above the normal 70 millimeters last January, while the 24 days of February had already more than 100 millimeters of water.
Tabada said that they were able to get the volume through a cylinder or a rain gauge that can operate within one kilometer.
“We expect more rains and floods in the next few months,” Tabada said.
He said the next weather projection is the temperature of the Equatorial Pacific, which seems to neutralize and which means there are more rains to come.
“We just hope that the sun will shine in April and May for a long period,” Tabada said.
Global warming
Tabada said the change of climate this year is partly caused by global warming that has already alarmed world leaders.
He said that in China, the Guangzou Province experienced snow, which they did not see for the past 17 years. It’s summer in China but snow came out.
“Imagine, we are supposedly in the part of the summer period but we still experience cold environment at dawn and early in the morning because of the tail-end of cold front,” Tabada said.
Aside from bad effect to agriculture, Tabada said the change in climate has also affected the people’s health because several people get coughs and colds.
He added that the rains may stop in April but rainy days will come in May, which is supposedly the hottest month of the year.
The rains will continue in June and considering that this month is the start of the year’s rainy season, there will be no more summer in the Philippines in 2008, he said.
He also said that too much rain makes the farmers unhappy because some crops, which will only grow during summer will be destroyed with so much water.
Tabada said that because weather is important in planting crops, the Department of Agriculture and the Weather Bureau have become partners in weather forecasting.
“We have a division called Agro-Meteorology, which deals with agriculture and meteorology. Under this system, the farmers may know what crops to plant for the month,” Tabada said. (EOB)
