Malaysia to experience uncommon extreme weather events, meteorologist says

SHAH ALAM - Malaysia has been experiencing uncommon heavy rainfall and natural disaster for these past few months as seen from mini-tornadoes in Terengganu and recent flash floods in Kuala Lumpur.

Meteorologist and oceanographer Datuk Prof Dr Azizan Abu Samah stated that the possibility of Malaysia experiencing more uncommon extreme weather events such as heavy rain or drought was high as stated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“IPCC did state that more extreme weather events such as heavy rain or drought are expected to occur.

“However, it is very difficult to differentiate between natural variability (we are still in the La Nina phase i.e more rain) and that has been induced by global warming,” he told Sinar Daily.

He stated that what Malaysia was currently experiencing is a complex interaction between La Nina, sea surface temperature, cold surges and deep convection in the form of very active high thunderstorm cells (16 km tall).

He said these thunderstorm cell systems can produce hailstorms, microbursts or tornadoes (very gusty winds of more than 15 to 20m/sec) but what makes this a bigger issue in the country now is that there are more people with smartphones to record the phenomenon.

“These days, there are more people recording these phenomena with their smartphones.

“Also, laymen cannot differentiate snowfall, hailstone and sleet. Like what happened in Mount Kinabalu, they said it was snowing because they saw white when it was more likely to be sleet,” he said.

When asked about the flash floods happening in Kuala Lumpur last week, he explained that the heavy rains were brought about by cold surges.

“For this 2021 to 2022 northeast monsoon season our region is under the influence of La Nina, which is an anomalous increase in sea surface temperature that promotes more convective activities in our region. Usually, during La Nina we get 10 to 20 percent more rain,” he explained.

He suggested that the government implement a proper flooding miitgation system by building more flood retention pond systems like what they have for Undergound of River Augmentation Storage 600 in Sungai Selangor.

He said it should be build for Sungai Klang and Sungai Langat as well, in which would help the flood-prone areas.