10 - DAY AGROMET BULLETIN

WEATHER REVIEW FOR AGRICULTURAL USERS
OF MALAYSIA

21^st – 31^st  JULY 2008

SUMMARY

During the last decade of July, most places in Peninsular Malaysia recorded above normal rainfall with a few places had much below normal rainfall. Sabah, Sarawak and east Terengganu was comparatively wetter compared to other parts in Malaysia .  In peninsular, west coast had less than 30 mm whereas east coast recorded 70 to 100 mm rainfall. Over East Malaysia, Sabah & Sarawak recorded rainfall amount ranging from 70 to 200 mm of rainfall amount except central coastal Sarawak which had more than 200 mm during this period. The amount of rainfall would favour agricultural activities that require good amount of rainfall.  However, for those areas mainly in eastern part of Peninsular and southern Sabah that had continuous moisture-saturated soil conditions, the growth and development of roots for some crops might be affected. With regard to the temperature, most of the lowland areas in Malaysia recorded normal temperature with Subang, Petaling Jaya and Kluang had above normal during this period while Malacca experienced much above normal. Chuping, Kuala Krai, Batu Embun, Kuching, Sibu, Labuan and Kudat had below normal whilst Bintulu and Miri recorded much below normal whereas Kuala Terengganu experienced very much below normal temperature. The temperature in this decade had not affected significantly the crop growth.    

1.  WEATHER ASSESSMENT

1.1  RAINFALL

In the last decade of July most places in Peninsular Malaysia recorded above normal rainfall with a few places had much below normal rainfall. These were shown on map in Figure 2.The Map of Rainfall Total (mm) shown in Figure 1 below indicates that Sabah, Sarawak and east Terengganu was comparatively wetter compared to other parts in Malaysia. In peninsular, west coast had less than 30 mm whereas east coast recorded 70 to 100 mm rainfall. Over East Malaysia, Sabah & Sarawak recorded rainfall amount ranging from 70 to 200 mm of rainfall amount except central coastal Sarawak which had more than 200 mm during this period. The highest total rainfall of 230 mm was recorded at Bintulu, Sarawak where 7 out of 10 days period were raining. On the average, most places in Malaysia recorded 3 and 4 raindays. In the wet areas 5 and 6 raindays were recorded whereas 1 to 2 raindays were recorded in other areas.        

Figure 2 : Rainfall Percentage from Normal (%)

Figure 3 : Extreme Weather Conditions

1.2  EVAPORATION

Most parts of Malaysia recorded normal except some places had slight below normal evaporation rates throughout this decade. In Figure 4 shown below, most places in Malaysia recorded between 3.0 to 4.0 mm of daily evaporation rates. The highest values of evaporation rates, 5.0 mm were recorded at north Sabah . Nevertheless, the lowest evaporation rate, 2.6 mm was recorded in south Johore & Pahang and the highland area over northwest Pahang.  

Figure 4: Mean Daily Evaporation (mm)

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