HOUSE OF THE WEEK
An abundance of space at FMI City
CERTAINLY, space is not a problem in this house – once you get there. Over the Hlaing River, 45 minutes from downtown, there is a large one-storey house in a big compound waiting for someone ready to trade time for space. ...moreUnusual rainfall patterns due to climate change: meteorology dept
CLIMATE change has had a significant impact on Myanmar over the past five years and 2009 was no exception, an official from the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) said last month.
The official said the effects of climate change were now noticeable even for people who are not specialists in meteorology, with an increase in extreme weather events like thunderstorms and tornadoes coupled with shorter monsoons and changing rainfall patterns.
“Seven people died as a result of lightning strikes this year, while several houses that had been rebuilt following Cyclone Nargis were destroyed by a tornado in July. There were also extreme weather events in the coastal regions of Rakhine State and Yangon Division,” the official said.
But despite a slight increase in the number of storms that formed in the Bay of Bengal compared to the 30-year average, no storms made landfall in Myanmar coastal areas in 2009, he said.
Another significant impact of climate change in Myanmar was the shorter monsoon period. In 2009, the monsoon was about 10 days shy of its average length of 144 days, the official said.
The official said the monsoon was of moderate intensity, with 63 moderate days, 40 strong monsoon days and 25 weak days.
“In 2009, there was also a general lack of rain in the central regions,” the official said, pointing out that Shwebo, Myingyan, Mandalay, Yamethin, Chauk and Pakokku had significantly below-average monsoon rainfall totals in 2009.
“Shwebo’s rainfall was less than 60 percent [of the monsoon average]. Myingyan and Mandalay received less than 65pc and 50pc respectively of their usual rainfall and Yamethin, Chauk and Pakokku were down about 40pc on normal,” he said.
The lack of rain was particularly noticeable in the early monsoon period, with almost no falls recorded in central Myanmar until August.
However, in lower Myanmar there was intense rain in the early monsoon period. In August, Taungoo in Bago Division had its highest 24-hour falls in 45 years and the torrential rain caused severe flooding in residential quarters of the town.
Tanintharyi Division also suffered from several periods of heavy rain. On July 17, Launglon broke its highest 24-hour rainfall record when 17.09 inches were dumped on the town in a single day.
In October, heavy rainfalls in Kawthaung township triggered a landslide that killed two monks and a novice. Similarly, at least 24 jade miners died in a landslide in the Kachin State town of Hpakant after more than 10 inches of rain fell in a single day in July.
According to a World Meteorological Organis-ation (WMO) press release in December, about 55 million people were affected by extreme weather events in 2009.
Ms Margareta Wahl-strom, the United Nations Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, said that in 2009 more than three quarters of the people killed – and 95pc of the total affected by natural hazards – were due to extreme weather events, according to the statement, which was jointly issued by the United Nations Development Program, UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the WMO.
According to the statement, 224 of the 245 disasters in 2009 were weather-related and these accounted for 95pc of the 58 million people affected, 7000 out of the 8900 people killed and US$15 billon of the $19 billion in economic damage as a result of disasters.
The 2009 figures, collected in collaboration with the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, cover the period January to November.
Meanwhile, the WMO estimated that 2009 is likely to be ranked in the top-10 warmest years on record since the accurate climate records began in 1850. A WMO statement said the decade of the 2000s was warmer than the 1990s, which in turn was warmer than 1980s.
