Tuesday, March 15, 2011
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Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:58 Kyaw Kha

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burma’s Meteorology and Hydrology Department warned that gales, with winds of up to 63 miles per hour, are likely to hit Burma accompanied by heavy rainfall during March.

Passers-by inspect a tree that toppled in a gale in Monywa
in Sagaing Division in 2010. An increase in gales and
rainstorms in Burma is forecast for March. Photo: Mizzima
A gale force wind is rated seven to 10 on the Beaufort scale or 32 to 63 miles per hour (28-55 knots).

As daytime temperatures rise before the southwest monsoon season, cumulonimbus clouds will form during the afternoon or evening across Burma and gales with thunder, lighting, hail and isolated rain or thunderstorms are likely to occur, the weather department said. A cumulonimbus cloud forms a towering mass with a flat base at fairly low altitude.

A state-run newspaper said that a lighting strike killed a woman in Kalawea village in Thanlyin Township in Rangoon on March 11.

The woman was the third lighting-strike victim within a month, according to Tun Lwin, a meteorologist with the Myanmar Climate Change Watch Group.

Tun Lwin said a La Nina weather pattern in the Bay of Bengal will add to the high winds and thundershowers. People who use sea routes should be extra aware of the developing weather conditions, he said.

On March 11, 150 houses were destroyed and more than 760 people were displaced in Rangoon Division because of a storm with high winds and rain, according to data compiled by authorities. About 20 houses were destroyed due to a storm in Bogalay Township in Irrawaddy Division on the same day.

Tun Lwin, a former official in Burma’s Meteorology and Hydrology Department, currently publishes weather reports via his website.

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