Cold surge brings heavy rainfall in east coast states

KUALA LUMPUR: Heavy monsoon rain is expected in the east coast states of peninsular Malaysia from today, lasting between three and five days.

Malaysian Meteorological Depart­ment (Met Malaysia) director-general Datuk Che Gayah Ismail said this was due to signs of a cold surge that would strike today.

At 11.45am on Tuesday, the department issued a yellow alert signifying heavy rain was expected over Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang from today until Saturday. The warning was reissued yesterday at 12.07pm.

A yellow warning signifies imminent rain within one to three days.

Two more colours stand above the yellow warning – orange and red.

Orange signifies continuous moderate rain that lasts for more than a day, with average rainfall of 0.5mm to 4mm per hour.

Red is the highest warning which signifies continuous moderate rain that has intensified into heavy rain lasting for a day or more, with an average 20mm of rainfall per hour.

For updates on the rain condition, log on to met.gov.my.

“The cold surge is a high-pressure cold wind from Siberia and China that reaches our area (Malaysia),” said Che Gayah.

“As such, heavy rain will occur a day or two after the cold surge, as it will take time for the wind to reach our country.”

She said there may be floods as a result of the heavy rain lasting between three and five days.

Che Gayah added that the accuracy of the forecast for the heavy monsoon rain was between 60% and 65%.

Met Malaysia said in a statement that the wet weather was expected to persist with rain falling in one or two areas in the east coast states, Sarawak and east Sabah in the early morning.

It said rain and thunderstorms are expected to occur in several areas in the east coast states, the interior of Pahang, Sarawak and the western part of Sabah in the evening and night.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that the Social Welfare Department has prepared daily necessities, including food supplies, at 42 forward bases in Tanah Merah in preparation for the year-end monsoon floods in Kelantan.

Tanah Merah welfare officer Wan Zahari Wan Muhamad said the department had also set up a mini depot for storing daily necessities and to facilitate the distribution process to the relief centres.

“We have also appointed a number of retailers around the area as suppliers to the department if supply is insufficient.”

He said 106 volunteers would be helping the department at 99 relief centres in Tanah Merah.

“We hope more people will come forward to register as volunteers to assist us during the floods because the 25 existing staff are insufficient to control the situation in the event of a major flood like last year’s,” he said.