MANILA, Philippines ? (UPDATE) After weeks of scorching heat, rain has finally come ? at least in parts of Metro Manila ? due to a cold front in Luzon. But the government-run weather bureau quickly doused hopes of cooler days, saying the showers were merely ?transient? and that the country was still experiencing El Niño.

?The rains are due to the passing of the cold front. We expect we will return to warm weather in a couple of days. While the rains were a welcome respite from the summer heat, after this we will again slowly feel the heat of the dry season,? said Nathaniel Cruz, deputy administrator for administration and operations of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

Cruz told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that despite the rainshowers, rainfall was still below normal. ?If we compute the amount of rain that fell today, it?s still below normal that what we should be getting at this time of the year. This is expected because we are still in El Niño.?

Cruz added that he checked with their personnel in Northern and Central Luzon who reported that the skies in their areas were clear and temperatures were beginning to go up.

In its latest weather bulletin Friday, Pagasa said the cold front would bring cloudy skies with light rains.

It was just that Friday when Metro Manila experienced scattered rainshowers mid-morning.

Likewise, the eastern section of Mindanao, which has been experiencing a shortage in power supply, will have mostly cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms, according to Pagasa.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country will experience partly cloudy to at times cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms, it said.

The dry season came last month, earlier than expected. Temperatures also reached the 34 and 35 degree Celsius range, which usually occurs only in the middle of the dry season in April and May.

The early onset of the dry season has been blamed on the El Niño phenomenon, the unusual warming of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific which causes abnormally hot weather and droughts.

Because of the heat, water levels in the country?s major dams have been dipping and nearing their critical levels. Losses in the agricultural sector is said to be around P8 billion.

Mindanao?s hydroelectric powerplants have failed to produce enough electricity due to El Nino, prompting President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to declare a state of calamity in the region.