Trough of ‘Pepito’ to bring rains in 9 areas; new LPA may enter PAR

MANILA, Philippines — The trough or extension of severe tropical storm Pepito will bring cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorm in nine areas in the country on Thursday as the state weather bureau monitors another low pressure area that could enter the Philippine area of responsibility and develop into a tropical cyclone.

Based on the weather forecast of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) issued at 4 a.m., cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms are expected in Batanes, Babuyan Islands, Ilocos Region, Cordillera Administrative Region, Zambales, Bataan, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, and Western Visayas.

Meanwhile, the rest of the county will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers due to localized thunderstorms.

Pagasa said the center of “Pepito” was last spotted 380 kilometers west of Dagupan City, Pangasinan. The tropical cyclone has maximum sustained winds of 100 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 125 kph, and is moving west-northwestward at 10 kph.

“Inaasahan natin na posible na this day o mamayang umaga o hapon ay nasa labas na ng PAR itong si Pepito. Inaasahan natin within the next 48 hours ay kikilos ito papalayo pa ng ating bansa na kung saan hindi na ito magdadala ng anumang epekto sa alinmang bahagi ng ating bansa,” Pagasa weather specialist Ezra Bulquerin said.

(We expect that this morning or afternoon, Pepito will leave PAR. Within the next 48 hours, it will move away from PAR and will not bring any more effect in any part of the country.)

Meanwhile, the LPA outside PAR was last spotted 1,660 kilometers east of Mindanao.

“Patuloy po tayong magmonitor sa LPA na ito dahil posibleng pumasok ito ng PAR at maging tropical cyclone. Kaya’t umantabay po tayo sa mga updates na ilalabas ng Pagasa,” Bulquerin said.

(Let us continue to monitor this LPA because it may enter PAR and become a tropical cyclone. Let us monitor updates to be released by Pagasa.)

Aside from severe tropical storm Pepito and the LPA, Pagasa is also monitoring a tropical depression outside PAR that was last located 1,870 kilometers east-northeast of extreme northern Luzon. It has maximum sustained winds of 45 kph and gustiness of up to 55 kph, and is moving slowly in east-northeast direction.

Bulquerin said the tropical depression may not enter PAR based on Pagasa’s forecast.

EDV