Pagasa: Thick clouds still hover over PH even as storm leaves PAR

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MANILA, Philippines — Cloudy skies would still prevail over a huge part of the country despite the storm’s continuous movement away from the Philippine area of responsibility.

Updates from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) on Thursday afternoon showed that the southwest monsoon or habagat would still have an effect on the country’s weather tonight and early Friday, especially for central and southern Luzon, Metro Manila, Bicol Region, Western Visayas, and the Zamboanga peninsula.

This, even as Tropical Storm Noul (formerly known as Leon) was last located 530 kilometers north northwest of Pagasa Islands in Palawan.  While Noul has no direct effect on the country’s weather systems, it intensifies the monsoon rains, which in turn bring cloud bands over the country.

But the remaining parts of the country would see a gradual improvement of the weather starting Friday, as temperatures in Metro Manila return to the 26 to 32 degrees Celsius range, 24 to 32 degrees for Legazpi, while it may peak to 33 degrees in Laoag and Tuguegarao during daytime.

The rest of Visayas and Mindanao may see better conditions with Cebu and Tacloban possibly getting temperatures between 24 to 32 degrees Celsius, while Davao will experience around 25 to 32 degrees in temperature.

Gale warnings are still in place over the seas of Pangasinan, Zambales, Bataan, Palawan’s western coast including Kalayaan Islands, and Oriental Mindoro including Lubang island.

This means that fisherfolk and boat transfer operators using small boats are discouraged from sailing as sea condition may become rough to very rough.

Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao’s seas except the latter’s western waters would be in a moderate to rough condition.

JPV