TAGBILARAN CITY, October 27 (PIA) — Brace for an intensified El Niño, warns the state weather bureau through its local station in Bohol.
Speaking at the Kapihan sa PIA which tackled the forecasted long dry season that country is set to experience starting next month, Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) Bohol Officer in Charge Leonardo Samar said that scientists have noticed the increase in surface water temperature or sea surface temperatures (SST) at the central equatorial Pacific.
The public is reminded to start conserving water and its prudent use, plant drought resistant crops, and be ready with measures needed to cope with the long dry season.
El Niño is a warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is often associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific and this refers to the cycle of warm and cold temperatures, as measured by SST.
El Niño is accompanied by high air pressure in the western Pacific and low air pressure in the eastern Pacific.
The cool phase of ENSO is called La Nina, with SST in the eastern Pacific below average and air pressures high in the eastern and low in western Pacific.
While the El Niño is a natural global phenomenon occurring in 7 to10 years interval, it usually occurs toward Christmas, thus the name, sources said.
Samar revealed that the international weather center have tracked the long droughts associated with the ENSO in the past years and noted a trending increase in SST since 1957 to 1958.
In 1972 to 1973, El Niño experts tracked an increase in SST at 2.1 degrees, the first time the sea surface temperature breached 2, according to Samar.
By 1997 to 1998, however, the central pacific temperatures reached 2.4 degrees, which was the strongest ever.
Conservation.org called the 1997-98 as the big El Niño when it killed as many as 1,200 people and damaged $33 billion properties worldwide.
This year, 2015-2016, experts have noticed 2.3 degrees increase in SST this early, and warns of a “Godzilla” El Niño brewing in the Pacific.
In Bohol, where agriculture is basically what preoccupies people, a strong El Niño means below normal rainfall beginning October to as far as June of next year.
Worst forecasts are for January and March in 2016, where experts see a way below normal rainfall compared to the already below normal rains in the other months.
PAGASA called for people to be conservative in water usage, especially in irrigation and houses.
Department of Agriculture urged farmers to disrupt rice planting if only to introduce drought-resistant crops in a bid to adapt to the rainless season threatening.
Moreover, Bohol has been set to implement cloud seeding operations, under the condition that the operation would maximize the effects of artificial rain to the farms and the province’s dams and water impounding systems. (rmn/rac/PIA-7/Bohol)