blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The Philippine Daily Inquirer writes an op ed Sodden welcome about the La Nina enhanced Easterlies that have been wrecking havoc on the eastern seaboards of the region even into Australia. Queensland, Australia is now experiencing floods which its non-believer Prime Minister Julia Gillard described as of "biblical proportions" Gillard has personally seen the disaster which now has shut down Brisbane. While the Sydneysiders and Melburnians are hundreds of kilometres from the flood zone, all my mates from those cities don't think they won't get flooded. They are concerned. The PDI complains that the Manila-centric Noynoy administration has not shown the requisite urgency in dealing with the matter. Mr Noynoy Aquino has yet to set foot or fly over flood stricken Southern Leyte or even in nearer Albay. If he had, the press didn't get wind of it and neither have we seen the press photos. Mrs Arroyo steps into a disaster zone, I think it is Malacanang P...

Give up on the hero? No! the international airport (NAIA) that is. The recent spate of flight diversions, cancellations and delays have brought into attention the state of the Philippines' foremost international gateway and domestic flight hub. It also has brought more attention to changes in our climate patterns. How come we still haven't felt much of the monsoon? The Ninoy Aquino International Airport now handles 24.1 million passengers annually with 205K aircraft movements. The airport has 4 terminals but it has only two runways (one 2.25 km long and the other 3.73 km long). That the airport has only two runways and has no room for expansion places a limit on future air traffic growth. All airport experts agree that the airport is now in a state of air traffic and passenger congestion. Terminal 1 was designed only for 4.5 M passengers a year. Terminal 2 (used exclusively by PAL) has a 9.5 M capacity, Terminal 3 (used by Cebu Pacific and AirPhilExpress) has a 13 M capacity...

Several people have asked me whether what we have been experiencing in Metro Manila for at least 2 weeks can be considered as a "heat wave". Since I teach a bit of meteorology and climatology for freshies on Environmental Science 1, I had to dig up my notes and find out what the definition of heat wave is. There is no fast and clear numerical rule for determining what a heat wave is. It is relative. For instance, in Scandinavian countries like Denmark and Sweden, three days of consecutive 28 c weather is officially considered as a heat wave by their meteorological agencies. In these northern European countries where people are used to summer temperatures peaking at 21 C, this is indeed unbearable. Visitors to London from the Southern United States laughed at a Times headline that went "London SIZZLES in the 70s . Southerners are used to having temps that reach above 100 F. In the Southern United States, two days of excessively hot weather is considered a heat wave. Th...