Leash of fury?

Flashflood and landslides everywhere! After staying-up to watch the historic inauguration of the new US President, I was awaken very early this morning to the sound of strong wind and heavy rain. When we all left the house there were traffic jams everywhere. Not in the mood to join the ‘jam party’, I turned to the highway though I knew that it would be a longer route to reach Bandar.

Traffic lights were not working here and there which resulted in more traffic jam. Along the way, I counted more than twenty cars were having problems with their engines. One car was abandoned and it looks like it has hit a road barrier.

I would like to thank Kristal FM and DJ Tini for keeping her listeners inform on the road update. I know the sources came from the listeners themselves which I also salute. DJ Tini said there were accidents and that students from Sekolah Menengah Saidina Hasan in Kilanas have been asked to go home today due to the flooding. The school must be in a bad situation, muddy and wet I imagine.

I think its high time for the authority to set up a ‘live’ traffic report especially during the current wet spell and air them over all radio channels in every half an hour or so. Or why not make use of the Internet – after all Bruneians are IT-savvy lots. Video reports live through the handphones to your hands.

MSN weather forecast for Brunei today:

Current conditions (as of 9:30 AM) Today’s forecast:
High: 28ºC
Low: 23ºC
Weather: Fair
Wind: 11 km/hour

 

From Brudirect

I heard over the news the other day quoting from our local Meteorological Section saying that we are currently experiencing the effect of La Niña until the end of the month. Remember ‘her’?

Translated, La Niña means, “The Little Girl” , but sometimes she is called “El Viejo”, “anti-El Niño”, or even just “a cold event”. La Niña is characterized by cooling of waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean and stronger than usual trade winds. It occurs almost as often as El Niño and also affects the normal weather patterns in some parts of the world, such as higher than normal rainfall in Southeast Asia.

“In the last few days, we saw a cold air outbreak’ from continental Asia, notably China and Siberia, which affected the Sultanate which is currently experiencing a north-east monsoon” says this report.   

More thunderstorms expected until the end of this week says the weather forecast (wallahu’alam), so brace yourself with wetter Brunei. Hold on to your umbrellas or raincoats.