MANILA, Philippines?El Niño has ended and the chances of La Niña occurring in the second half of the year are increasing, the weather bureau said Friday.

In fact, one or two tropical cyclones are expected to hit the country this month, according to Prisco Nilo, administrator of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

El Niño refers to the abnormal warming of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific, which causes droughts and below-normal rainfall. It has brought losses to Philippine agriculture.

La Niña is the abnormal cooling of sea surface temperatures that cause heavy rainfall.

Nilo said in an advisory that sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean gradually cooled down last month.

?The El Niño event that prevailed over the equatorial Pacific since June 2009 has ended,? Nilo said.

While the climate models being analyzed by Pagasa predict that ?neutral conditions? will persist, ?some models indicate the possibility of a transition to La Niña conditions during the second half of 2010,? he said.

Pagasa said that for this month, rainfall conditions would likely be near normal in most parts of the country, with some areas in the Visayas and Mindanao receiving below-normal rainfall.

It said in a weather bulletin that the low-pressure area that had been dumping rain in Luzon was spotted 40 kilometers northwest of Basco, Batanes, at 5 a.m. Friday.

As a result, Luzon will experience cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms, Pagasa said.

Widespread rains, which may trigger flash floods and landslides, are expected over the extreme north.