By ALISON ANIS
THE National Weather Service (NWS) office in Port Moresby has issued strong wind warnings for the Southern and the New Guinea Islands region including parts of the Gulf and the Western province and has advised against passengers travelling on light vessels.
Weather forecasters yesterday revealed strong winds have already established itself in these areas since Tuesday night and would continue for the next 24 hours due to tropical lows (pressure build-up) over Queensland and along the south of Coral Sea.
On Wednesday night, coastal villages in the Central province and parts of Port Moresby were hit by strong winds that were accompanied by heavy rains.
Big trees were reportedly uprooted by the strong wind in some parts of the city and others fell onto the roads blocking way for commuters to travel to work yesterday morning though no casualties were reported.
The normal north-westerly monsoon wind has taken its toll, according to NWS and will continue for the month of January.
“The latest development indicates the country will be experiencing heavy rains, thunderstorms and strong winds with breaks in between for the months of January and February,” an officer from NWS said yesterday.
The officer, who asked to remain unanimous, said this type of weather was expected around this time of the year.
“This is also a cyclone period (November to April).
“At the moment, we are keeping track of tropical lows that are forming over Queensland and north of Coral Sea.
“If the situation becomes unfavourable, weather people in Australia will raise the alarm and name the cyclone,” he said.
NWS officers have previously predicted that Port Moresby and other parts of Southern region to experience rainy season until March this year and that there was most likely to be another occurrence of a cyclone in the area where destructive Cyclone Guba was detected.
They also confirmed the unpredictable weather patterns, was brought about by climate change.
The officers agreed that global warming and climate change had contributed immensely to unstable weather patterns in the country and around the Pacific region, thus making their job of keeping track of the weather more and more difficult.