The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology warned the public yesterday that the recent spate of heavy rains and strong winds would continue until the weekend, possibly leading to severe lightning storms and to floods in coastal regions.
An area of atmospheric activity known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a moving band of stormy weather circling the equator, is currently passing over Cambodia, according to a ministry statement released yesterday. The monsoon currently over the south of China is also expected to hit Cambodia in the coming days with winds reaching up 54 km per hour.
“[The ministry] would like to inform authorities and people… especially in the northwestern and coastal provinces to pay attention and be careful to avoid these dangers, in particular the floods caused by rainfall in the mountain areas,” the statement said.
The ministry predicts the weather pattern will last until Sept 5, the statement said. Waves near the coastal areas around Kep and Preah Sihanouk provinces are likely to reach one to two meters.
The government’s chief meteorologist Seth Vannareth said that villagers should listen to the warnings and be careful. It is not clear if the weather will calm down after Sept 6, she added.
The governors of Kep and Koh Kong provinces confirmed they had received the warnings yesterday and said they were using radio to broadcast information to local inhabitants. Koh Kong provincial Governor Yuth Phouthang said he had received a similar warning from Thai authorities two days ago.
“We announced [the warning] to the people through FM radio,” he said, but added, “villagers here have a lot of experience living near the sea. They pay strong attention to the weather.”
Kep Provincial Governor Has Sareth said the province had a good system in place for warning villagers and that authorities had used local radio stations to reach fishermen in particular, since they will be in danger if they are at sea when storms hit.
