Our water woes aren’t going away any time soon: experts are forecasting a severe six-month long dry spell if the El Nino weather phenomenon hits Malaysia in the middle of this year.
The United Kingdom Meteorological Office is projecting that El Nino will be descending on Southeast Asia in mid-2014. Local weather experts are not yet sure if Malaysia would be directly affected, but nonetheless the phenomenon would likely cause a prolonged dry spell in the country.
Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia (Awer) president S Piarapakaran said his insitution, using the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) calculation model had forecasted a 70% probability of El Nino hitting Southeast Asia.
“Awer had sought the cooperation of the UK meteorological office for an alternative view on the possibility of an El Nino in the SEA region and its impact on the climate in peninsula Malaysia,” he told Bernama.
El Nino is a band of anomalously warm ocean water temperatures which cause extreme climate changes along the equator other parts of the globe.
Should the effect be intense, about 60 per cent of consumers in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur are expected to face a worse drought compared to the water crisis in the past two months.
El Nino struck Malaysia in 1998, causing temperatures to rise to a high of 40.1 degrees Celsius in Perlis on April 9 that year.
