It’s official: Rainy season has begun
By Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 18:01:00 05/16/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- If the sun has become less visible and the rains have become frequent in the past few days, it's because the rainy season has officially started this week, "slightly earlier" than normal, according to the weather bureau.
The wet season usually starts in the fourth week of May but with the La Niña conditions persisting in the country, the start of the rainy period came a week earlier, said the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Administrative Services.
The "slightly earlier" onset of the rainy season has an "indirect relation" to climate change, which triggers the frequency of the El Niño and La Niña event, PAGASA Director Prisco Nilo told the Philippine Daily Inquirer Friday.
"The effect of the La Niña phenomenon is to [induce] the early onset of the rainy season," he explained.
The weather bureau also attributed the early onset of the rainy season to the transit of typhoon "Butchoy" off the eastern coast of the archipelago last week, triggering the southwest wind flow or more commonly known as "habagat."
The two tropical storms "Cosme" and "Dindo," currently in the Philippine area of responsibility, were also intensifying the southwest monsoon, affecting wide sections of southern Luzon, including Metro Manila and western Visayas.
"The onset of the rainy season started this week but the weather will gradually improve over northern and central Luzon on Monday after ‘Cosme’ [exits] the country," PAGASA weather branch chief Nathaniel Cruz said during a press briefing Friday.
At 10 a.m. Friday, Cosme was monitored 400 kilometers northwest of Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, with maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 80 kilometers per hour.
It was expected to make a landfall Saturday in the Ilocos area and cross northern Luzon in the evening while "Dindo" will move farther away from the Philippines toward Okinawa, Japan.
Tropical storm "Dindo" was spotted at 1,070 kilometers northeast of Basco, Batanes, at 10 a.m. Friday with center winds of 75 kilometers per hour and gustiness of up to 90 kilometers per hour.
Public storm signal No. 1 was hoisted over Bataan, Zambales, Pampanga, Tarlac, Pangasinan and Lubang Island. On Monday morning, the storm is expected to be 130 kilometers east of Aparri, Cagayan.
Cruz said the rainy season will peak in July and August, when tropical cyclones are expected to increase in occurrences, even if the La Niña phenomenon continued to weaken. He said there was a 60 percent possibility that conditions will be "neutral" from May to July, meaning that neither La Niña nor El Niño will hold sway.
But this would not reduce the normal amount of rainfall in the country during the rainy season. "Even if it is in the receding stage, it will have a lingering effect that will possibly generate above normal amount of rainfall," added Nilo.
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