Baguio coldest in 46 years

Tourists enjoy the sun at Burnham Park. Gobleth Moulic/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

BAGUIO CITY—Millenials now know what their grandparents experienced when the mountain city was at one of its coldest.

The mercury here dropped to 7.3 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, from 8 degrees on Valentine’s Day, making it the coldest day so far this year.

It almost matched the 7.1 degrees recorded on Jan. 9, 1971, and qualified as one of the lowest temperatures yet in the city in 46 years.

But it was far colder in nearby Mt. Sto. Tomas, where folks woke up to the temperature registering 4.5 degrees, said Efren Dalipog, Baguio weather observer.

The mountain, which has an elevation of 2,260 meters above sea level, is part of the forest reservation that straddles Baguio and Tuba town in Benguet province.

But Ibaloy and Kankana-ey children and teenagers who live there have been acclimatized to the cold weather.

High school students trekked down the foggy mountain for classes on Wednesday and did not seem to mind the slide in temperature, said Michel Laurent, a Sto. Tomas resident who drives his children to school every morning.

“We welcome the weather here. We actually enjoy it. The children walking to school every day at 6:30 a.m. are used to the cold weather,” Laurent said.

Young Baguio residents have noticed the slide in temperature the past days and have been asking their parents and grandparents how they coped with the cold in the 1970s.

Session Road, the city’s main thoroughfare, has become a virtual runway for slightly used winter clothes (“ukay-ukay”) worn by students and workers.

Dalipog said they first recorded the temperature at 7.4 degrees at 5 a.m. only to see it drop further to 7.3 degrees at 6 a.m.

Records from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration showed that Wednesday would be the fourth coldest day in Baguio’s history. The coldest morning here was 6.3 degrees on Jan. 18, 1961.