Flashfloods inundate downtown Yangon
Source: Myanmar Times
Date: 4 April 2018
Heavy rain flooded roads in Yangon on Tuesday during a thunderstorm, and the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology said the country is entering the pre-monsoon period.
Thunderstorms are likely to occur across the country, especially in the afternoon and evening, the weather bureau said.
Lightning strikes may generate irregular rain patterns due to the forming of "cumulonimbus clouds", which are dense towering vertical clouds associated with thunderstorms and atmospheric instability, it added.
These clouds may produce lightning and other dangerous weather phenomena, such as tornadoes or thunder strikes, according to the department.
"Cumulonimbus clouds often form in this period. We should prepare for storms in April and May," said U Kyaw Lwin Oo, the department's director.
"It rained 0.12 inches according to Kabaaye weather station at 3 o'clock in Yangon on Tuesday," he added.
From April 2016 to the end of the year, 59 people died from thunder strikes. In 2017, 80 people died between April and August, while 25 others were injured, according to the Department of Relief and Resettlement.
Over the past few years, lightning strikes have occured frequently immediately before and after the monsoon season.
But last year, cumulonimbus clouds causing thunderstorms formed during the whole rainy season, inducing more rains that triggered massive floods and displaced thousands of people, according to U Kyaw Moe Oo, director general of the department.
