Heavy rain next week, flash floods on west coast

Rainy season may persist until next month says Met

The cloud pattern over South-East Asia at 7am on Saturday morning. The storm system is moving from east to west, up into the Bay of Bengal and turning over Thailand and Indochina. MTSAT Asean satellite image from Singapore weather service.

KUALA LUMPUR: Heavy rainfall is expected over the peninsula in the next few days, with flash floods in west coast states a possibility.

The heavier rainfall is expected over Perlis, Kedah, north Perak, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, and Johor from tomorrow until Tuesday, the Meteorological Department has predicted.

Flash floods are also a possibility on the west coast.

Met officer Azlai Ta’at was quoted as saying that the monsoon winds, which would be moving towards Sabah and Sarawak at this period, has remained over the peninsular east coast and would only move in the middle of January. The rainy season would persist on the east coast until next month.

Azlai said a vortex with high wind concentration over Selangor and Malacca would cause rains for another few more days.

Senior meteorological officer Dr Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip said west coast states were expected to experience flash floods from short bursts of heavy rain. The department was not ruling out another period of heavy rain in the east coast tomorrow.

Dr Mohd Hisham said there had been higher tides than usual, caused by the perigee of the moon (at its closes approach to the Earth) on Dec 24 which hampered the movement of water out of river mouths, leading to higher levels along the course of the rivers.