WANT TO KNOW WHY WE HAVE THE WORST FLOOD IN YEARS (OTHER THAN GOD'S DIVINE) ?? ... Combination of natural phenomenon contributed to floods, say climatologists
BY EILEEN NG
Published: 28 December 2014
A resident checking out his flooded house. Experts say a number of factors contributed to the floods in Kelantan and several other states. – AFP pic, December 28, 2014.Adverse weather conditions resulting from a combination of the year-end monsoon, perigean spring tide and the La Nina phenomena contributed to the worse-than-usual floods in northeastern Peninsular Malaysia which have displaced more than 160,000 people, said climatologists.
A perigean spring tide is a tide that occurs three or four times a year when the moon's perigee (its closest point to Earth during its 28-day elliptical orbit) coincides with a spring tide (when the Earth, sun and moon are nearly aligned every two weeks).
This is worsened by the current Northeast monsoon experienced by the east coast, where northeasterly winds bring moist air, causing parts of the country to experience four to seven days of continuous heavy rainfall.
"As a result, the water has no way to go but overflow its banks, which inundated low- lying areas like Kuantan, Kota Baru and Kuala Terengganu," said climatologist Professor Datuk Dr Shaharuddin Ahmad from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, citing the main towns of the three worst-hit states.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department had said the moon was closest to the Earth at 12.44am on Christmas Day, where it was as close as 364,791km from Earth, appearing as a super moon, or a larger than usual moon, even to casual observers.
Climatologist Dr Ramzah Dambul from Universiti Sabah Malaysia, who is planning a trip to the affected areas as part of his research, did not discount the possibility that the La Nina phenomena was a contributing factor as it usually brings severe thunderstorms.
He said the La Nina, coupled with the on-going monsoon, could have resulted in the worse than normal floods usually experienced by the states of Kelantan, Terengganu and some parts of Pahang.
"What we are probably seeing is the combined wind circulation from the two weather patterns which brings with it a lot of rain," he said.
Environmental Management & Research Association of Malaysia president Ellias Saidin, however, discounted overdevelopment as the cause of the floods, saying that the three states were not as developed as the western part of the peninsula.
He said climate change which brought more rainfall and higher temperatures in the past few years could be one of the factors that contributed to the current situation.
"There are solutions to this, like flood mitigation projects, but it will be very expensive because it involves hundreds of kilometres of coastline and may involve relocation of people and animals as well," he said.
The situation in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor and Perak is reportedly worsening, while the northern states of Perlis and Kedah reported that the flood situation has improved.
In Kelantan, as of yesterday, 81,925 evacuees were in relief centres, up from the 45,467 on Friday night, national news agency Bernama reported.
The total number of evacuees nationwide rose to more than 160,000 yesterday.
Rescue teams were reported to be struggling to reach inundated areas of northeast Malaysia as victims accused the government of being slow to provide assistance after the country's worst flooding in decades.
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin admitted rescuers were facing challenges with power outages and roads washed away by the floods.
"I admit the situation is challenging to the rescue workers and we are trying our best to make sure that the food arrives to the victims depending on the flood situation," he was quoted as saying by The Star.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who was severely criticised for playing golf in Hawaii with US president Barack Obama while parts of the country were under water, returned yesterday and went straight to Kelantan where he was briefed on the flood situation by the National Security Council before visiting some of the affected areas. –
Source : tmi
No comments:
Post a Comment