Recent rain showers provided relief to some parts of the CNMI but the National Weather Service continues to forecast below normal yearly rainfall amounts on the islands as the current El Ni\u00f1o event passes its peak and is slowly weakening, and could transition to La Ni\u00f1a later this year.<\/p>\n
In its latest drought information statement, NWS said computer models indicate that below normal rainfall will continue in the next couple of months in the CNMI. <\/p>\n
\u201cWater supplies need to be monitored very closely and water conservation is highly encouraged. Drying and yellowing of food crops and vegetation will become worse and grass fires will increase. Livestock on Tinian may become stressed as food sources dry up,\u201d NWS said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWater wells on Saipan could see an increase in salinity as the drought progresses,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
In a board meeting last week, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. reported that some of their water wells on Saipan have been experiencing \u201cfast drawdown issues\u201d which means the volume of water is dropping, according to CUC acting executive director Gary Camacho. <\/p>\n
Camacho added that one of their water sources, Donni Springs, which is among the main supplier for Garapan, has completely dried up.<\/p>\n
From a production of up to 500 gallons per minute to 57 gallons per minute in February, it is now down to zero. <\/p>\n
According to NWS, the drought associated with the weakening El Ni\u00f1o will continue to affect some Micronesian locales into the late spring and early summer. <\/p>\n
\u201cClimate model projections do indicate with high confidence that the El Ni\u00f1o pattern will persist until late spring, then transition to ENSO-neutral by the summer months and likely to La Ni\u00f1a status late in the year,\u201d NWS said.<\/p>\n
La Ni\u00f1a Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n The NWS-Climate Prediction Center together with the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society issued a La Ni\u00f1a Watch with their latest El Ni\u00f1o Advisory.<\/p>\n A La Ni\u00f1a Watch is issued by CPC when conditions are favorable for the development La Ni\u00f1a conditions within the next six months. <\/p>\n According to CPC, rainfall and thunderstorm activity diminishes over the central equatorial Pacific, and becomes confined to Indonesia and the western Pacific during a La Ni\u00f1a event.<\/p>\n The watch said that \u201cLa Ni\u00f1a is favored to develop during the Northern Hemisphere summer of 2016, with about a 75 percent chance of La Ni\u00f1a during the fall and winter 2016-17.\u201d<\/p>\n It added that sea surface temperature anomalies decreased across the equatorial Pacific Ocean, especially in the eastern Pacific during the past month. The observed anomalies reflect a weakening El Ni\u00f1o and a trend toward ENSO-neutral conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cMost models predict the end of El Ni\u00f1o and a brief period of ENSO-neutral by early Northern Hemisphere summer,\u201d CPC said.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, there is clear uncertainty over the timing and intensity of a potential La Ni\u00f1a,\u201d it added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recent rain showers provided relief to some parts of the CNMI but the National Weather…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[2599,4578,11587,758],"class_list":["post-228104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-cpc","tag-el-ni","tag-la-ni","tag-nws"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}