I’M NO seer and have no pretentions of being one, but for 2014 I’ll hazard predictions.
Not that it’s a big concern. After all, self-claimed seers turned out to be all wet for 2013. Let’s revisit the predictions for 2013 and compare that with how things turned out during the year.
At least, for 2013 there are no more end-time predictions. No more Harold Campings or the Mayan prediction for 2011 and 2012, respectively, who took their believers for a ride to nowhere.
There are, however, who risked their reputation to make their fearless forecast. There’s Indian scientist Vasudev Moolrajani who predicted, “I also confirm that the year 2013 will commence along with severe earthquake, typhoon, flood, fire, volcano burst in between dates from Feb. 10, 2013 to March 25, 2013 and in between April 22, 2013 and May 25, 2013.”
It turned out that Moolrajani was all wet. He missed out on northeastern Brazil that suffered January through May a devastating drought – the country’s worst in 50 years.
He was still all wet on the record flooding in late May and early June of many central European countries – including Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech Republic as the Danube, Vltava, and Rhine rivers overtopped their banks.
Or the record heat that afflicted many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Alaska tied its all-time heat record of 36.6° Celsius. Mind you, that’s Alaska. Or the 54° Celsius heat wave for Death Valley, California on June 30 that many considered as Earth’s overall heat record.
How about this? The deadliest weather event officially recorded in 2013 happened in June in northern India and Nepal, where severe flooding claimed 6,500 lives. The disaster was caused by extreme monsoon rains over the Indian state of Uttarakhand’s capital, Dehradun, flooding more than 35.5 centimeters of rain in a 24-hour period, a new record.
Who would have predicted the onslaught of Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda)? At its strongest, Yolanda was estimated to reach one-minute sustained winds of 315 kph.
When Yolanda made her first landfall in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, it was observed and has to be verified of maintaining its intensity, possibly making the cyclone the strongest tropical typhoon that could make its landfall the strongest on record, surpassing the old record of 305 kph.
On the domestic front, a so-called seer, Stargazer, predicted on December 11, 2012 that more storms will hit Mindanao and Visayas and that a city will be devastated. Oh okay, that prediction was warm enough. I could have said that myself.
With climate change I could also hazard such predictions. Strong typhoons would pummel Eastern and Panay in the Visayas and Northern Mindanao in 2014. Many parts of Metro Manila and Central Luzon could experience flooding sometime between July and November.
My wish list for the year though is that my predictions to be all wet.
Alas, in all likelihood, one or two will be just as strong as or even stronger than what we have yet experienced. I kid thee not, judging the past years of Frank, Ondoy, Pablo, Pepeng, and Yolanda.
Post scriptum: Psychic Danny Atienza predicted on January 13, 2013 that the Lim-Estrada face-off for Manila mayor will see Estrada losing to the former police officer. “Kapag nananalo si Erap kay Lim, jackpot siya. Sisiguraduhin ko sa kanya 99 percent, talo siya kay Lim.”
r(bqsanc@yahoo.com)