Following a week of persistent and heavy rain central areas of the Philippines are reeling from the effect of flash flooding and landslides.

Around 200 people were dead or missing Sunday after tonnes of mud slammed into villages near the remote towns of Liloan, Maasin and San Francisco in southern Leyte, and on the northeastern part of Mindanao Island. Thousands have already been evacuated and many homes have been destroyed. An extensive rescue attempt is currently underway here, but is being hampered by further torrential rain leading to blocked roads and downed power and telephone lines.

The heavy rain of the past few days however, is not abnormal at this time of year. Frequent heavy showers are expected in December as result of the combination of northeasterly monsoon winds and the southward journey of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). (The ITCZ is wide band of heavy thunderstorms generated by converging trade winds. The ITCZ oscillates about the equator with changing seasons, sitting across the tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere summer and that of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere summer.)

The major problems caused by the rainfall in the Philippines may well have been exacerbated by severe deforestation. The area is mountainous and with extensive logging, much of it illegal, the water-holding capacity of the land has been greatly reduced. Saturation of the ground occurs readily and makes mudslides almost inevitable. In the 1970's 34% of the country was covered by forrest - by the late 80's this was reduced to just 22%. This figure is continues to fall at an alarming rate.

Further flooding and landslide problems are expected in this region within the next week as the showers continue and may be compounded by the formation of a cylone in the Philippine Sea by the end of the week.

Weather News from the last five days:
20/12/2003
19/12/2003
18/12/2003
17/12/2003
16/12/2003

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