SUNNY skies have returned to Myanmar after a wetter than average monsoon ended earlier than usual.

“We can say that this year’s rainy season period has almost finished and the southwest monsoon ended earlier than average,” the deputy director general of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, U Tun Lwin, told the Myanmar Times last week.

U Tun Lwin said rain or thunderstorms would persist until November, although the southwest monsoon had retreated from the country.

He said that about 85 per cent of the rain during the wet season was caused by the monsoon and the remaining 15 per cent was due to typhoons.

U Tun Lwin said the southwest monsoon had retreated from northern Myanmar on September 8, central Myanmar on September 17, the Ayeyarwaddy delta on September 20 and the entire country on September 22.

“The department had accurately forecast when the southwest monsoon would retreat from the country,” he said.

U Tun Lwin said there had been many unusual features of the rainy season this year. Rain had begun falling in February, during the cool season, and had continued during the pre-monsoon period from mid April to mid May.

“We can say that the monsoon arrived twice this year and on both occasions a typhoon was involved,” said U Tun Lwin.

He said the southwest monsoon first affected southern Myanmar on May 12, the Ayeyarwaddy delta on May 15 and central Myanmar on May 19 and lasted three weeks. The effects of the monsoon were again felt from the second week of June.

U Tun Lwin said although the monsoon brought more rain than average, advance forecasts by the department had enabled precautions to be taken to mitigate its effects.