What's the weather like in Brunei?
Brunei's weather forecast for yesterday was occasional crossing of squally showers persist further offshore this morning and may spread to coastal and inland areas in early afternoon. Nevertheless, fair intervals and slightly hazy can be expected in between. For outlook to early Saturday morning, expected to remain unsettled with crossing of squally showers. The wind will be Southwesterly 10-30 km/h over land and 20-40 km/h at sea. Wind gusts of 50-70 km/h can be expected near squally showers. The condition of the sea is expected to be moderate to rough at 1.5-2.5 m and occasionally rise to 3.0 m near squally weather. The temperatue will be maximum of 31 deg C and a minimum of 23 deg C. If on RTB, the newscaster will end with Wallahualam Bisawab.Surprisingly, in Brunei, I noticed that most of us are not really that much concerned about what the weather forecast is. Of course, golfers are a different bunch altogether. One group would excessively worry about it - worrying about their poor game. The other group couldn't care less what the weather is. I once played in a full rain simply because one of our flight member had to finish the hole and get his par. We were really drenched then. When I was in England, the weather forecast is a must. No way will I miss it. I have to know whether it's going to snow tomorrow. I have to know what the humidity level is. I want to know whether the day is dry or not. I want to know the wind chill factor. Here in Brunei, I couldn't care less if it rained or not tomorrow. I don't know about you.
The weather service in Brunei is provided by the folks at the Meterological Service. The internet service started in 1996 (according to the website but I do know the actual weather forecasting service already existed even when I first joined the Ministry way back in the 1980s) at the Old Airport and is currently a section under the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), Ministry of Communications. It is an active member of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
At first the service was started to provide meteorological data for the aviation purpose but with the haze crisis in 1997 and the need to do continuous monitoring, the meterological service is now required all the time. Much of the services provided by Meteorological Service are made readily available to the general public. Climate data requests are provided however to non-govern mental agencies, with some exception, on cost recovery basis (meaning, they now charge for it).
The Brunei meteorological observation network comprises of the three stations at Brunei International Airport, Muara and Kuala Belait where 24-hour surface observation is practised at the International Airport and Kuala Belait and upper air observation is only done at the International Airport. Additional monitoring through rainfall stations are also done at Tanah Jambu and Sungai Gana.
The Brunei Meterological Service website provides three weather information - the weather forecast; warning and advisory; and satellite images. It also provide links to other weather related matter as a description of Brunei's monthly weathers. All in all, it's a worthwhile website to go into, if you want to know whether you will be able to play soccer the next day or if you are overseas, you might just want to visit it to feel right at home.
Comments
I worry a lot about it especially because of my golf round. For me, playing golf in the rain deteriorates my performance dramatically. Out comes the brolly and the rainjacket.
I also worry when i go to work but more so during my golf round. I worry that if it rains heavily when i get back, i might have to divert to KK and that would spoil dinner plans with the family.
In Brunei, it generally rains between 1800 to 2400hrs and sometimes 1100 to 1300 hrs.
Usually the wettest months are October to December and the driest February to April. Sometimes it gets dry in August(but with the recent heavy downpours,it puts that theory out of the window)
Needless to say, i keep a very close eye on Brunei weather.
What we do is glance towards the direction of the golf course that we are going to play at and look at the cloud cover hovering in that direction. The general rules are; if there are black clouds don't play. If there are grey clouds one may chance it and might be able to put in maybe 9 holes at the most. If the clouds are white or the sky isn't cloudy then all systems are go. Disclaimer: This method of weather forecasting system is only 10 percent effective and should not be used to predict weather for early morning tee time.
Due to the recent typhoon storms in the S-E Asian region, the TSYNOWWF forecasting system have been rendered totally useless. Last wednesday we were happily whacking about PMGC, the sky was slightly overcast and our scores just overcast by 5 over par at the back nine, really happy days. But just as we were about to tee off at the 4th tee at the front nine, dark clouds loomed over the hills in the distance and kept on charging towards us at frantic speed. If you remember the clouds of Mordor from the Lord of the rings, they are exactly like that! Anyways long story short, we scurried off to the clubhouse when a sudden gust of wind sprayed "hail" onto our faces, it felt like Blackpool in autumn all over again. It got really scary when we came to the bridge spanning the pond at the par 3 ninth hole. The bridge we were about to cross looked like a footage from hurricane Catrina with the waves at the side created by the mach 4 wind. Thank god we made it to the clubhouse without any incidents and just in time before the torrential rain fell. Odd though that the storm siren didn't go off...
2) IF you're in England, it is quite an English thing to do to talk about the weather, really. The next thing you do after you greet each other in the UK (i.e. after asking 'you alright?') is say "nasty weather it is today innit?" or "oh what a beautiful day today! the sun's up, my armpits are precipitating!" or "the rain's been dreadful, I need to wear my wellies all summer!"
I love being in London especially. The weather's just wicked and unpredictable... so it always gives me a chance to be grumpy and blame it on the weather.
3) IF you ever chance to go golfing at Overstone Park in Northampton in Spring, remember that you might freeze your fingers... while it *gently* hails on on a soddingly cold day as you try to swing hopelessly to the fore.
4) How does one minimize the "precipitation" (perspiration lah) off ones' armpits when it comes to really hot sunny days in this blessed nation?