The Malaysian government has created a new committee in the Education Ministry to monitor temperature conditions in the country. If the maximum temperature during the day exceeds 37ºC for 3 days straight they have the authority to shut schools and cancel outdoor activity. The heatwave has been hitting headlines for the last few weeks and on March 18 the seriousness of the weather came to fore with the untimely death of a police cadet from dehydration. The cause of death was attributed to heatstroke from an El Nino induced heatwave–an obvious conclusion and comparison is being drawn to the heatwave caused by El Nino 1998. The apparent thinking is that this is a normal cyclic weather phenomenon with no mention of climate change as a culprit too.
What has also perked my intrigue on government reporting is that the peak temperatures officially published by the Met. department across Peninsular Malaysia range between 36ºC to 38ºC though I have consistently recorded air temperatures above 40ºC in Klang, Selangor and Manjung, Perak–the highest hitting 42ºC with ground temperature soaring above 50ºC. The peak recorded temperature in Malaysia during El Nino '98 was 40.1ºC. According to the meteorological department that temperature has yet to be recorded anywhere in Malaysia but I own investigations prove otherwise. I blame this intensification weather to climate change. Thus we have three geological and weather phenomenons conspiring to create this year's scorcher namely the spring equinox, El Nino and climate change.
This heatwave should taper after two weeks and news headlines will follow other headwinds. This danger will pass and life will continue as usual albeit we will continue to complain about the blistering non-heatwave heat. We will have missed another important alarm bell that nature is blaring at us as we go along stubbornly preserving our no-limits lifestyle, secure in the ignorance that nature is somebody else's problem.
What has also perked my intrigue on government reporting is that the peak temperatures officially published by the Met. department across Peninsular Malaysia range between 36ºC to 38ºC though I have consistently recorded air temperatures above 40ºC in Klang, Selangor and Manjung, Perak–the highest hitting 42ºC with ground temperature soaring above 50ºC. The peak recorded temperature in Malaysia during El Nino '98 was 40.1ºC. According to the meteorological department that temperature has yet to be recorded anywhere in Malaysia but I own investigations prove otherwise. I blame this intensification weather to climate change. Thus we have three geological and weather phenomenons conspiring to create this year's scorcher namely the spring equinox, El Nino and climate change.
This heatwave should taper after two weeks and news headlines will follow other headwinds. This danger will pass and life will continue as usual albeit we will continue to complain about the blistering non-heatwave heat. We will have missed another important alarm bell that nature is blaring at us as we go along stubbornly preserving our no-limits lifestyle, secure in the ignorance that nature is somebody else's problem.
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