EXPECT DRY SEASON AS EL NINO CHANCES INCREASED: S.I MET SERVICE
A sunny day at Malaita’s capital Auki. Photo credit: SIBC.
Solomon Islands is expecting a drier season as the chances of El Nino occurring during the year have increased.
Deputy Director of the Solomon Islands Meteorological Services, Lloyd Tahani confirmed to SIBC News yesterday.
In an exclusive interview, Mr. Tahani says the Early Warning System for Malaria Risk Alert has predicted increasing chances for El Nino conditions this year.
“The update issued out was that we are now having chances for an El Nino to occur this year, 2015 and the chances have increased and also on the outlook, the threshold which will be reached in the coming months, we’ll sort of expect that by June we should be in an El Nino condition.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Tahani says it is advisable that people start rationing water as the country heads towards a dry season.
“We are now heading towards an El Nino kind of condition where we are looking forward to and it will have an impact on our rainfall. It is advisable that we start to plan how we are going to use our water resources to have enough reservoirs and especially the communities who are using wells or maybe streams, you know, start some planning so that we can be on the safe side in a real situation.”
El Nino is associated with Below Normal Rainfall conditions, leading to drier weather conditions.