CYCLONE Nargis has helped to turn Myanmar into a nation of weather-watchers.
Weather forecasts in newspapers are anxiously scanned, and there is a ready audience for statements from the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, observers say.
A journal and newspaper seller in downtown area also said that weather news is in great demand in rainy or windy conditions.
“Sales of journals and newspapers increase when the city has continuous rain or strong winds,” he said.
Ma Zin Min, 28, who runs a private business in Yangon, says she has made a point of reading daily weather forecasts since Nargis visited the country a little more than a year ago.
“I check the weather forecast in the paper and look out for news from the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology on television at night to know if there’s any low pressure area that can develop into a storm,” she told The Myanmar Times during an interview last week.
“I also buy various magazines with weather news when rain falls continuously and or the wind blows strongly, as it did last week.
“Strong winds during Nargis shook our apartment on the top floor of our high-rise building,” she said.
She said it was Nargis that had made her more aware of weather news.
“I heard that a low-pressure area was going to form in the Bay of Bengal during June in the monthly forecast news,” she said.
The meteorology department announced in its monthly forecast that Kachin, Chin and Mon states and upper Sagaing, Ayeyarwady, Yangon and Tanintharyi divisions can expect above-normal rainfall this month, and that although rivers would rise in June, they will not reach warning levels.
But public interest has not extended to books about the disaster, booksellers say.
U Maung Maung Lwin, manager of Inwa book store, said very few books had appeared in the Myanmar language about Cyclone Nargis, and even those that had made it to shelves had not sold in large numbers.
“There aren’t many books produced locally on natural disasters – we carry only three in our bookshop. And there are not many readers either,” he said.
Daw Swe Swe Naing of Ah Myin Thit bookshop, said precious few customers asked after disaster-related books in her store.
“Some did ask last year just after Nargis, but not any more. A book about Nargis by Sayar Chit San Win sold one or two copies last week,” she said.
