The La Nina spawned rains swamping most areas of Bohol last week could be just a preview of what is yet to come in the next four months.
According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), large parts of the country, including Bohol would have a wet summer characterized by above-normal rainfall in March, April and May.
In reports, chief of PAGASA’s climatology and agrometeorology division even broke the bleaker news: weather models and advisories from observation centers across the globe forecast La Nina to stretch until May, with the peak occurring in February.
The weather bureau said that La Niña, or a weather condition characterized by above average rains arrived in the Philippines last October and has so far submerged coastal communities in parts of Australia.
Hitting the globe in cycles, the La Nina, PAG-ASA said brings in “above-normal†rainfall incident similar to what happened in the Philippines in the summer months of 1998 when the entire country had one rainy summer.
The cycle is expected to repeat in 2011.
In Bohol, the moderate rains that fell for almost two days drenched most towns causing flooding in ricefields in Alicia, loosening the soil which toppled trees and consequently obstructed traffic in Jagna, creating minor alarm over river towns of Inabanga, Sevilla and Loboc and rendering some roads impassable in Carmen.
Over this too, Governor Edgardo Chatto has advised town disaster risk reduction management councils to be on their toes in the next months.
Provincial Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council has identified in its hazard maps areas for close watch including landslide prone, tsunami or storm surge areas, towns with flooding incidents and crucial road networks that may be affected by the rains.
Since December, PAG-ASA said the eastern seaboard of the country has been getting above-normal rains. (racPIABohol)
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