On 11 March, 2019, Prof. Jun Matsumoto and Dr. Lyndon Olaguera of the Tokyo Metropolitan University gave talks focusing on the monsoon seasons of the Philippines at the Manila Observatory.
Prof. Matsumoto’s talk, entitled “Complex climatological summer monsoon onset processes over the Philippines,” briefly discussed how the Philippine summer monsoon starts. Later, he outlined how the Philippine monsoon climate is different and that of continental South and Southeast Asia.
Olaguera
Matsumoto
Along with this, Olaguera’s talk, entitled “Interdecadal Shifts in the Winter Monsoon Rainfall of the Philippines,” gave a historical monthly analysis of winter monsoon rainfall shifts in the country from 1961 to 2008 based on observation. His study found that shifts happen more remarkably in December, a significant month in different agricultural practices in the country, establishing the importance in understanding the various mechanisms which lead to these shifts in rainfall. Later in his talk, Olaguera also outlined that two shifts in the December rainfall of 1976/1977 and 1992/1993 were identified. The 1976/1977 shift was attributed to the phase shift of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), featuring a change in surface sea temperatures (SST) comparable to El Niño-like features. On the other hand, the 1992/1993 shift was linked to a La Niña SST change.