‘Moderate’ El Niño may be felt next month                                                                                                           
 By Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star)  | Updated May 27, 2014 - 12:00am
           
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                 MANILA, Philippines - A moderate El Niño weather phenomenon is seen coming into the country in the next few months.
 Speaking to reporters in General Santos City yesterday, Vicente  Malano, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services  Administration (PAGASA) acting director, said the numerical  computational models they were using to monitor the sea surface  temperature anomaly in the Pacific Ocean indicated a “moderate” El Niño  that might come in June.
 “It will not be as bad as the 1997-1998 El Niño that we had in the country. We’re seeing a moderate El Niño,” he said. 
 Malano spoke at the opening of the two-day disaster imagination  workshop for SOCCSKSARGEN region of the Department of Science and  Technology (DOST)’s “Iba Na Ang Panahon (INAP): Science for Safer  Communities” national road show.
 El Niño is defined by prolonged warming in the Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures when compared with the average.
 Meanwhile, Archbishop of Manila Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle has asked the faithful to pray for rain.
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  In a circular, Tagle said the Archdiocese of Manila can include the  Oratio imperata or mandatory prayers for rain in the daily and Sunday  Masses beginning May 18.
 “Let us together storm heavens with our supplication, that God’s  mercy be upon us and send us the rain we need,” he said. “It is the time  for our rainy season and yet the rains have not come. People tasked  with managing our water/power resources have warned that we face a  crisis in those areas. Our relief will come from nature. And so we  implore the Master of all creation, God, our Father, at whose command  the winds and the seas obey, to send us rain.”
 The country, especially Luzon, badly needs rain to avert damage to  crops and other livelihood and prevent a power shortage, Tagle said.
 Malano said they are not ruling out possible revision of the onset of El Niño.
 The sea surface temperature anomaly level of .4 over the Pacific  Ocean the past few months – which had led the DOST and PAGASA to declare  the onset of El Niño probably by June – has gone down, he added.
 A sea surface temperature anomaly level of .5 is considered an El Niño condition, PAGASA weather scientists said.
 In the 1997 El Niño phenomenon in the country, the sea surface  temperature anomaly level had reached 1 degree and brought severe heat  and less rainfall, he added.
 Mindanao must make sure to always be ready with  disaster risk  reduction and management plans because it has been seeing an increasing  number of typhoons in recent years, Malano said.
 The disaster imagination workshop in General Santos City is the  homestretch of DOST’s INAP national road show, which started in Central  Luzon the first week of March in Clark. 
 The INAP is a collaboration between the DOST, Department of the  Interior and Local Government, and the Office of Civil Defense.  The  SOCCSKSARGEN stop is the second to the last leg of the information and  education campaign for disaster mitigation and preparedness.
 It is being held at the KCC Convention Center in General Santos City.
 The city has just reorganized its City Disaster Risk Reduction  Management Council for a more effective disaster management program. The  regional information and education campaign constitutes a nationwide  road show, which began in March 2014 to equip local governments with  disaster information via science-based tools like 3D hazard maps, flood  models, Project NOAH website navigation familiarization, hazard  simulation software, and mobile applications.
 Provincial governors, city and municipal mayors, disaster risk  reduction and city planning officers, as well as local government  consultants are enjoined to attend the two-day event which focuses on  local hazard risks in the region.  
–  With Evelyn Macairan