PAGASA: El Niño to hit three Bicol provinces
January 13, 2010 10:33 pm
By Mar S. Arguelles
LEGAZPI CITY, Jan. 13 – Disaster authorities here are bracing for the dry spell after the state weather agency confirmed that the El Niño phenomenon has entered the country’s threshold, affecting three Bicol provinces in the first half of this year.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) issued an advisory that the provinces of Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte and Sorsogon are among the 23 provinces in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao regions that would be affected by the dry spell.
Areas that will experience a dry spell condition have increased in number and these are Benguet, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Batangas, Aurora, Quezon, Marinduque, Mindoro, Romblon, Sorsogon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Northern Samar, Aklan, Guimaras, Biliran, Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat.
The province of Capiz is already under drought condition as it experienced five consecutive months from August-December with below normal rainfall.
These areas exhibited three to four consecutive months of below normal rainfall condition, PAGASA said.
Average air temperatures for the month were near normal in most parts of Luzon while most areas of Visayas and Mindanao experienced above normal surface air temperature.
Likewise, Western Visayas experienced way below normal rainfall, while the central and eastern portions experienced below to near normal conditions.
Greater portions of Mindanao experienced below normal rainfall condition and only the eastern and western portions showed near normal rainfall values.
Pagasa said these are clear manifestations of the impacts of El Niño is now in the country.
The current El Niño episode continues to persist across the equatorial Pacific Ocean and has reached a moderate strength. Leading climate models suggest tropical ocean temperatures are approaching their peak and will remain above El Niño thresholds through March 2010.
It will likely influence the country’s climate through the first half of the year.
Weather systems that prevailed during the month of December last year were the Northeast (NE) monsoon, the tail-end of a cold front, ridge of High Pressure Area (HPA) and the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).
PAGASA noted that the occurrence of one tropical cyclone, Tropical Depression (TD) “Vinta” (December 02-03), which just passed through the north-eastern border of the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), did not affect the country.
Rainfall condition for the month of December was unusually way below normal in most areas of Luzon.
The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in Bicol advised various local disaster councils across the region specifically the three affected provinces to take the necessary precaution and take appropriate action to curb the negative effects of the El Niño to the communities and in agriculture sector.
The OCD directed local government units and national line agencies to draw up a pro-active action plan to ward off the effects of the dry spell and hold an information drive to warn and teach the communities about the El Niño phenomenon.
In Albay, Governor Joey Salceda, PDCC chairman, said although the province was not included in the list of places to be affected by the El Niño phenomenon, “Albay cannot be complacent considering that we have experienced six months of rainfall below last year level and we are at the middle of El Niño areas.”
For this reason, Salceda issued a directive to the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (APSEMO) to immediately conduct with agriculture sector both in the province and in the region, impact assessment on agriculture output.
For health response, he instructed the Provincial Health Office (PHO) in coordination with the Department of Health (DOH) to assess the impact of water-borne diseases.
He instructed the APSEMO to draw up a response strategy and identify specific impacts on the areas El Niño hit provinces so pre-emptive measures could be initiated. (PNA)
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