BAGUIO CITY?The typhoons having come and gone, it?s now time for residents and tourists to enjoy this summer capital?s ?Christmas weather.?

?Bring out your sweaters and jackets because this kind of weather makes you shiver and feel like your head will burst,? said Leticia Dispo, weather specialist of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) in this city.

Baguio residents started feeling the big chill last month, as typhoons pummeled the city and provinces in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

Oct. 27 was the coldest day of the month, with a temperature reading of 12.4 degrees Celsius (54.32 degrees Fahrenheit) in the city. It was 12.8 degrees on Oct. 9, when Typhoon ?Pepeng? (international name: Parma) was battering northern Luzon.

According to PAGASA records, the average minimum temperature in Baguio and the province of Benguet was between 14 and 14.8 degrees Celsius on Oct. 21-25.

People should enjoy the cold now because they will have to brace themselves for the dry spell to be brought by El Niño early next year, Dispo said.

She said Typhoon ?Santi? (international name: Mirinae), which was accompanied by strong winds but little rain late last month, was one of the early manifestations of El Niño.

Danny Galate, also a PAGASA weather specialist, said abnormal volumes of rain would lessen the impact of the dry spell.

Metropolis cool

Even in normally muggy Metro Manila, the temperature reading was a cool 19.8 degrees Celsius on Nov. 1. (But it was 13.2 degrees in Baguio on that day.)

PAGASA?s Robert Sawi said the weather bureau had been noticing a drop in the temperature since Saturday, particularly during the early hours of the morning.

?I think we should start bringing out jackets,? he said, adding that the cold weather would persist for the rest of the week.

Sawi said that at around 6 a.m. Tuesday, PAGASA recorded temperature readings of 18 degrees in Tuguegarao City and 14.6 degrees in Baguio. But at the PAGASA Science Garden in Quezon City, the reading was a relatively warm 23.5 degrees.

Sawi said the cold weather was due to the entry of the northeast monsoon, the mass of cold air blowing into the country from the northern hemisphere.

He also said cold weather in November was normal, and that Santi, which crossed Luzon on Oct. 31, enhanced the coming of the northeast monsoon.

?The typhoon was the trigger for the entry of the northeast monsoon. After the typhoon came, it got cold,? he observed.

Record readings

Tourists seeking to experience the vaunted Baguio cold may come in January when the temperature is expected to drop to 9 degrees Celsius or lower, Dispo said.

According to PAGASA, the record lowest temperature in Baguio?and in the whole country?is 6.3 degrees Celsius in January 1961.

For Metro Manila, the record stands at 14.5 degrees in January 1914, at Port Area in Manila.

Sawi said the cold weather would peak in February, with the northeast monsoon gradually disappearing to make way for the summer months.

?Tino? dissipated

Meanwhile, the northeast monsoon has also dissipated Tropical Depression ?Tino,? Sawi said.

The dissipation of the system was observed at around 8 a.m. Tuesday in the eastern part of northern Luzon.

In its 4 a.m. update, PAGASA said Tino would be crossing northern Luzon after entering Casiguran, Aurora.

But at 10 a.m., it reported that Tino had weakened into a low-pressure area.

?There is no more threat from Tino or any other weather system,? Sawi said.