Hot temperatures and little rainfall have led to record-breaking daytime and nighttime temperatures.
According to the University of California's Climate Hazards Center, much of the country has received only 45 to 75% of the rainfall forecast for the first four months of 2024.
In Muñoz, 125 kilometers north of Manila, temperatures soared to 40 degrees on April 27, breaking the city's record. The Philippines closed all public schools on April 29 and 30 due to the intense heat, which is very dangerous for public health.
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The heatwave has also spread to other parts of Southeast Asia.
At the end of April, the northern regions of Thailand and Myanmar recorded temperatures of around 40 to 44 degrees for more than a week. On April 28, the temperature reached 48.2 degrees in the central region of Magway in Myanmar, breaking the record for the highest temperature observed in the country.
The town was submerged in the 1970s when the reservoir was built, but has rarely been accessible to people since.
The man-made reservoir irrigates more than 1,000 square kilometers of surrounding rice fields in Central Luzon and has 100 megawatts of hydroelectric power capacity.
In the photographs shown, you can see the decrease in the water level. On April 15, the water level had dropped 30 meters from its normal maximum level of 204 meters, and 10 meters below the level it was at on the same date in 2022.
At the beginning of March, the GEOGLAM Crop Monitor, which issues scientific alerts for countries that may be at risk of low agricultural production, warned that high temperatures and below-average rainfall in April and May could pose a challenge for the rice crop in the Philippines.
Its rainfall forecasts indicate that these dry conditions could persist into this month and until the end of June.
