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1. Review of Regional Weather Conditions in February 2010

1.1     Weak to moderate Northeast Monsoon conditions continued to prevail in February 2010. The northern ASEAN region of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, northern Thailand and Vietnam continued to experience the traditional dry season. In the southern ASEAN region, the Northeast Monsoon season entered its dry phase with parts of the region experiencing dry weather conditions with little rainfall.

1.2    The monsoon trough and its associated rain belt migrated southwards in February 2010, leading to an increase in rainfall in the areas south of the equator, including Java, Sulawesi and central and southern part of Sumatra. In contrast, other regions to the north of the equator and the northern ASEAN region were predominantly dry and little rainfall was received. The lack of rainfall was further aggravated by the prevailing moderate El Niño event, negatively impacting the agricultural community of the Mekong sub-region as well as increasing the risk of transboundary haze.

1.3    During the month, below average rainfall was recorded in much of the northern ASEAN region except for parts of Lao PDR, Cambodia and Thailand. This was mainly contributed by afternoon thunderstorms over these countries in the first week of February 2010. Most of the southern ASEAN region to the south of the equator, received slightly above average rainfall while those to the north of the equator experienced slightly below average rainfall. The rainfall pattern for February 2010 is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig 1. Percentage of Normal Rainfall for February 2010

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