Recipe for disaster

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

THE city had the ingredients for an environmental disaster on Monday: a  low pressure area, a tail-end of a cold front, and a tide that rose to as high as seven meters above sea level.

Luz Mercado, a weather specialist at the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) in El Salvador, Misamis Oriental, blamed Monday’s floods in major sections of urban Cagayan de Oro on the high tide that slowed down the discharge of water from the uplands into the sea.

Mercado said the city and other areas in Northern Mindanao and the Zamboanga Peninsula could have similar downpours today because of the tail-end of a cold front.

Yesterday, Pagasa said the low pressure area has already dissipated.

Mercado said Pagasa could not rule out the possibility of more floodings, landslides, and even a storm surge.

“Kinahanglan magbantay gyud ta sa panahon, kay nia pa sa ato ang weather disturbance,”  Mercado said.

Pagasa said the tide rose starting at 1:45 pm Monday, about the same time it started raining hard.

The low pressure area and the tail-end of a cold front combined brought 72.4 millimeters of rain here on Monday. Mercado said Monday’s rainfall was “extraordinary” given that the entire January rainfall should only have been 83.4 millimeters.

The rains were wrought by the low-pressure area from the Pacific Ocean, and the tail-end of a cold front that brought cumulonimbus clouds.

Mercado said cumulonimbus clouds often result in heavy downpours even without storms.

“Series man gud ang formation aning cumulonimbus clouds mao na nga kon mo-ulan,  grabi  gyud  ka kusog ug dugay pa gyud mahuman kay daghan man sila  nga  cloud formation,” Mercado said.

Mercado said it would have been different if it rained during a low tide. “Kusog unta ang  discharge sa tubig gikan sa bukid. Dili unta grabi ang ipikto sa  baha.”

What happened was that as cold air plowed its way in, it pushed the warm air upwards, hence the abrupt changein weather. And when warm air went upwards, it expanded and lost its ability to hold moisture resulting in high rainfall and intense thunderstorm.