Malaysia: Brace for even more warmer days

Hana Naz Harun New Straits Times 14 Aug 19;

KUALA LUMPUR: MALAYSIANS can expect “higher than normal” temperatures within the next two months caused by the El Nino phenomenon.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Centre for Earth Sciences and Environment chairman Professor Dr Fredolin Tangang said the “weak El Nino” had affected weather patterns in the region, causing a warmer climate.

“In Malaysia, this weak El Nino has no apparent effect although warmer weather can be expected. However, we’re in the southwest monsoon period, where rainfall is minimal and temperature is the highest,” he told the New Straits Times yesterday.

Tangang added that this El Nino phenomenon was much weaker compared with the 2015/2016 extreme El Nino, where warming occurred in the central-eastern Pacific Ocean.

Despite its weak intensity, Tangang said the phenomenon had been blamed for the prolonged drought that hit Sumatra and Kalimantan, causing forest fires and haze. The dry condition in Indonesia, he said, was expected to last until October.

He also said there would be occasional severe storms, similar to the one that hit the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia.

“However, this kind of short-lived event is difficult to predict.”

Tangang said the Asian region had more than 20 typhoons a year, with the most recent being Lekima, which struck southeast China.

He, however, disagreed that Typhoon Lekima was the cause of the adverse weather that lashed Perlis, Penang and Kedah, as well as Perak and Selangor to a smaller extent on Friday.

He said Typhoon Lekima was too far away to affect Malaysia.

“Earlier reports stating that Lekima was the cause of the storm in the west coast was an incorrect assessment.”

Tangang said he agreed with the assessment by weather expert Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip, who said converging strong winds from the Indian Ocean and the southern Straits of Malacca was the cause of the storms in Peninsular Malaysia.

An online news portal had quoted Hisham, a National Aviation Meteorological Centre Malaysia senior director, who said the squall lines were formed by colliding winds, bringing strong wind and rain.

Tangang said another typhoon, Krosa, was expected to make landfall in Japan today, and it would also not affect Malaysia.

“It is too far from us. Krosa will not affect us,” he said.