PETALING JAYA: Klang Valley folks will not have to wait too long to get some relief from the prolonged dry spell as there should be changes in wind patterns soon, said the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD).
MMD’s national weather centre director Muhammad Helmi Abdullah said rain was expected to occur gradually following the change from the north-eastern monsoon towards the inter-monsoon season over the next two weeks.
“It is difficult to predict when the next showers will occur, but by mid-March, do expect more showers and thunderstorms,” he said yesterday.
Despite that, Muhammad Helmi said cloud seeding operations would continue over water catchment areas serving dams.
“At the moment, our primary focus is to increase water levels in these areas, although the rain does help with reducing the haze as well,” he said.
Muhammad Helmi added that unless the haze reached critical levels, there would not be any cloud seeding just to fight haze.
“While rain does help to reduce the haze by breaking up the suspended aerosols in the air, it is not a long-term solution,” he said in alluding to the fact that sources of particulate matter must be tackled in order to bring about clean air.
Muhammad Helmi said Monday afternoon’s cloud seeding operation was a success because it brought rain in several areas, though their effect on water levels in dams cannot yet be ascertained.
Elsewhere, a round of cloud seeding was also conducted at 2.45pm yesterday at the southern part of the peninsula, said MMD’s director of atmospheric science and cloud seeding division Azhar Ishak.
He added that each operation would take about two to three hours at a cost of about RM80,000.
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