The National Weather Service is predicting that the La Nina Season or the wetter-than-normal season is likely to start in December 2016 and will continue through to April of 2017.
Director of the National Weather Service Samuel Maiha says the La Nina season is predicted to be more severe than before.
“There are very strong predictions and the La Nina usually starts after the El Nino,” he says.
La Niña events are usually wetter. La Niña-associated prolonged rainfall has led to flooding and landslides, tropical cyclones, destruction roads, infrastructure, agriculture crops and others.
Maiha says the prediction is an early warning for appropriate government agencies to plan ahead of the expected season.
He says the Government has not yet received this warning.
“We will advise them in due course but early predictions will help us to prevent any disastrous events,” says Maiha.
The key agencies he will be working with, is Eda Ranu, PNG Power, Health Department, and the National Disaster and Emergency Response Centre.
Meantime, climate experts have forecast that El Nino will cease around March 2016.