The Philippines experienced an increase in “Christmas typhoons” and tropical cyclone-induced rainfall over the last couple of decades, according to the country’s latest climate report.
The report, to be published by the Philippine Climate Change Assessment (PhilCCA) Working Group 1 on Oct. 14, is patterned after the climate reports by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Faye Cruz, climate scientist and Manila Observatory regional climate systems laboratory head, said at a press briefing that one study the report examined tracked “Christmas typhoons,” named for their tendency to occur from December to February. The 2021 study found a 210 per cent increase in Christmas typhoons nationwide since 2012. This trend is more pronounced in southern Philippines, which saw a 480 per cent increase.
These tropical cyclones are still low in number, but have been increasing in recent years, Cruz said.
The PhilCCA authors also said that tropical cyclone-induced rainfall in the Philippines saw significant increases since 2000, ranging from 16.9 per cent to 19.3 per cent per decade.
Climatologist Lourdes Tibig, lead author of two IPCC reports and climate adviser for the Manila-based Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, said the observed impacts featured in the assessment “are really attributable to human-induced climate change.”
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We have the fastest rate of sea level rise in this part of the world. [But] we really do not have enough information, data to diagnose or even to predict how this will happen.
Jett Villarin, executive director, Manila Observatory
Between 1951 and 2018, the Philippines also saw an average increase in temperature of 0.16° Celsius (0.29° Fahrenheit) per decade, the PhilCCA report shows.
John Manalo, a meteorologist from the Philippines’ state weather bureau, said urbanisation and the urban heat island effect amplified the increase in temperature in the country. Long-term temperature data of the Manila metropolitan area between 1901 and 2018 showed “a significant increase in the number of warm nights and a decrease in the number of cool nights,” which is also the case with the rest of the country.
The report’s authors also highlighted the challenges they faced in gathering data. Sea level rise in the Philippines, based on satellite data from 1993 to 2015, is estimated at 5-7 millimetres (0.2-0.28 inches) per year over the Philippine Sea. However, climatologist Tibig said there’s no observation station for sea level rise in the country.
“We have the fastest rate of sea level rise in this part of the world. [But] we really do not have enough information, data to diagnose or even to predict how this will happen,” said Jett Villarin, climate scientist and executive director of the Manila Observatory.
Tibig called on policymakers to prioritise funding for the weather bureau as there are only a few monitoring stations in the country, making it difficult for scientists to gather data.
Despite such challenges, the authors said they were glad there were more research papers to feature in this year’s report compared to the last assessment, released in 2016. Villarin said they hope more local climate studies will be done in the coming years.
This story was published with permission from Mongabay.com.
