We miss Siyam-siyam this year.

Habagat brings into the country the yearly phenomenal
siyam-siyam (9 plus 9) days of rainfall.

Abe V Rotor

Siyam-siyam (18 days of continuous rainfall) enhances bountiful rice harvest.
The Northwest monsoon or habagat may be intensified by a series of typhoons and low pressure areas that may last for eighteen days; hence the phenomenon is called siyam-siyam in Tagalog and nep-nep in Ilocano which usually occurs in July or August. The period is usually interspersed with brief good weather lasting for two to three days.

Siyam-siyam enhances bountiful harvest for two reasons, namely.

• First, wider rice area can be planted, which includes the uplands; and
• Second, sufficient and longer retention of water in the soil nourishes the maturing rice crop, so with the succeeding crops.
  

We will soon feel the cold winds coming all the way from Siberia. Unlike the habagat wind that picks up moisture over the Pacific and dumps it as rain, the Siberian High or amihan wind is cold and dry because there's not much moisture it can pick up over the Asian continent. It's now Septemburr...

We had more rains the siyam-siyam brought last year which resulted in the Ondoy tragedy and flooding in other parts of the country. Without the siyam-siyam, 2010 is not a good crop year for rice and corn, and other crops that follow the rice harvest.

Let's therefore, tighten our belts.~

Living with Nature 3, AVR