Rain cools down Metro Manila, parts of Luzon–Pagasa

MTSAT ENHANCED IR Satellite Image for 05:32 P.M. PST

MANILA, Philippines – Parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila, cooled down after experiencing rains Tuesday afternoon due to a prevailing low pressure area, the state-run weather bureau said.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on its official Twitter account @MMDA said that as of 6 p.m., it has not received reports of flooded areas.

In its latest weather bulletin issued at 5 p.m., the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said that as of 2 p.m., the low pressure area was seen 120 kilometers southeast of Puerto Princesa City.

The LPA was embedded along the existing intertropical convergence zone (area wherein winds from the northern and southern hemispheres come together) prevailing over Mindanao.

In a Radyo Inquirer 990AM report, however, a weather forecaster, Bobby Javier, clarified that despite the rains, summer has not yet ended.

A report by Radyo Inquirer reporter Jong Manlapaz said that Pagasa has maintained that the onset of the rainy season will take place in the last few days of May.

Javier explained that the rains were spawned by “sudden local thunderstorm.” Because of the day-long high heat, Javier said, water evaporated abruptly, formed water vapors and droplets, producing heavy rain clouds.

Pagasa said rains fell mainly in Quezon City and Navotas. But in Makati, rains flooded some parts of the city including Mola Street, where the Inquirer.net offices and Radyo Inquirer station and studios are located.

Strong winds blew in the Quezon City Memorial Circle at the height of the 30-minute rain, snarling traffic and drenching commuters who were caught unprepared by the first rain in May, popularly known in the Philippines as “agua de Mayo,” which happened also on May 1.

In its official account on the social micro-blogging site Twitter, Pagasa said that among the areas which experienced rains were Laguna, Samar provinces, Surigao del Sur, Batangas, Rizal, Albay, Bulacan, Quezon, Davao del Norte, Bohon, Nueva Ecija, Zambales, Cavite and Metro Manila.

Due to the existing LPA and ITCZ, Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will have mostly cloudy skies with scattered rains and thunderstorms.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country will have partly cloudy to at times cloudy skies with isolated rains or thunderstorms which will occur mostly in the afternoons or evenings, the state-run weather bureau said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Pagasa said that the country would register its hottest temperature for this year at 37 degrees.

Originally posted at 06:46 pm | Tuesday, May 05,  2012