Cloud-seeding brings rain, saves Bohol from drought

TAGBILARAN CITY — Finally, after almost a month of extremely low rainfall, heavy rain poured Saturday as a result of a series of cloud-seeding operations aimed at the watershed areas of Sierra-Bullones, Alicia and Pilar towns in Bohol.

Significant rainfall has been monitored also in other towns and even in this city, since the rounds of cloud-seeding operations were conducted every afternoon since Thursday by a team from the Department of Agriculture after spotting cumulu-nimbus clouds hovering over the Bohol area.     

Larry Pamugas, OIC provincial agriculturist, said the rains saved the farmlands in Bohol from the looming drought that could have lead to the “El Niño” phenomenon had the rain-deficit period been allowed to stretch to four consecutive months.

Pamugas also said the contract with an aviation company is 60 hours that were maximized by scouting more cumulu-nimbus clouds towards the weekend and doing more cloud seeding to ensure the dams in the province would be able to collect enough water for irrigating the rice lands.     

Henry Hinlayagan of PAGASA had earlier said the extremely low rainfall this August was already alarming and, if it would stretch to three more months, would result in a dry spell by the fourth month, presaging the onset of the El Niño.

National Irrigation Administration-7 regional manager Diosdado Rosales said on Saturday that dam water had been released already even since night yet until the present.

“It is still flowing although at minimal rate only because water in the dam was already depleted. The light rain, I think, just started on Friday; maybe the product of cloud-seeding which started Thursday or perhaps due to the low pressure area. But all areas were already saturated with water,” said Rosales.     

On the other hand, the rainfall monitor in the first eight months this year shows that there had been above normal rainfall level from January to July. But it suddenly dropped to an extremely low level by August. From August 1-26, the total rainfall only reached 6.8 mm which Hinlayagan described as very low compared to the average distribution level of 108.2mm. based on a 37-year record.

During the period, it only rained three times—on August 1 that collected rainfall of 6.4mm; the drizzle on August 17 which only brought 0.2mm.; and on August 24, the drizzle only collected 0.2 mm or a total of only 6.8 mm. in the entire 26 days.

No rainfall had been recorded on August 2-16 and on the period, August 18-23. The recent downpour scattered throughout the province over the weekend had helped in reducing the rainfall deficiency by at least a quarter, but there still remain a considerable discrepancy to the supposed average rainfall of 108.2 mm. expected in the month of August.  – THE FREEMAN